Though the ongoing writers strike has halted production on the second season of The Last of Us and postponed its release by quite a while, the cast continues to keep the spark of anticipation alive by talking about all the things that are awaiting us in the next, and possibly final, chapter of this story.
As you’ll already know, Naughty Dog has only ever released two installments in The Last of Us franchise. The first season of HBO’s live-action adaptation already burned through the first one, and the second season is expected to adapt The Last of Us Part II, which, given its length — more than double the original — might ultimately compel the producers to split it into two seasons.
So, unless Naughty Dog is already hard at work developing a Part III, the television series will end with its third season, if not the second.
All of these are speculative asides for the time being, though. For the story itself, Bella Ramsey is teasing fans to expect a “darker” tone compared to season 1. At first glance, one might take those words as just another generic hype-fueling comment, the sort of litany actors memorize and repeat over and over again in the process of promoting their movies or television shows.
But if you were to ask The Last of Us fans, they’d probably tell you “darker” doesn’t even begin to describe the sort of abject anguish awaiting you in Part II.
We don’t want to go into too many spoilers, so we’ll just try to talk around Bella Ramsey’s own words in the recent Vanity Fair profile.
As they explained, season 2 is “a story about revenge and a continuation from the first season about the dangers of unconditional love.” Which, in essence, means that Joel’s questionable actions are going to catch up to him as he and Ellie try to adjust to a new beginning in Jackson.
The Last of Us Part II is a story about loss and trauma, and features the deaths of many important characters. Granted, that was already the case with season 1 as we suffered the loss of Tess, Bill and Frank, Henry and Sam, Riley, and even Ellie’s own mother, but Part II expands on the concept of “death” itself and how it can psychologically influence the protagonists down a dark path.
On top of that, the story’s very atmosphere is bleak throughout. There is no moment of respite for the characters, and Ellie will no longer be the quippy teenager that tried to lighten the mood at every opportunity. Some players even comment that while the first game may have been a therapeutic experience for them as they played through it, the second game is a delicate dance with second-hand trauma, quite capable of inflicting the very depression of its narrative on the audience.
So, while it’s true that we can’t possibly wait for The Last of Us to return to the small screens, you should be forewarned that calling the continuation of this journey “darker” would be a gross understatement.
