With the second season of HBO&rsquo;s hit series The Last of Us arriving this weekend, co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin says fans should brace for a story that&rsquo;s deeper, darker, and more emotionally intense than before.
Set five years after the events of Season 1, the new episodes will explore how the relationship between Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) has evolved&mdash;and how it&rsquo;s beginning to fracture under the weight of past secrets.
&ldquo;When we meet Joel and Ellie this season, five years have gone by, which in and of itself implies that things must have been going pretty well,&rdquo; Mazin told Entertainment Weekly. &ldquo;But Joel is starting to sense a change in Ellie that he can&rsquo;t quite explain. He doesn&rsquo;t understand why she&rsquo;s pulling away.&rdquo;
Now 19, Ellie is no longer a child, and the lie Joel told her in the Season 1 finale&mdash;about what really happened at the Firefly hospital&mdash;continues to weigh on their bond.
In the show&rsquo;s timeline, the pair now live in Jackson, a functioning community where life is relatively stable. But&nbsp;both are adrift&nbsp;emotionally, with fault lines beginning&nbsp;to show.
To navigate the growing distance, Joel seeks help from Gail, a therapist played by Catherine O&rsquo;Hara&mdash;a new character created for the show. &ldquo;Joel is trying to figure out how to deal with what he hopes is just typical teenage stuff,&rdquo; Mazin said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s this suspicion inside him that maybe it&rsquo;s something deeper. That maybe it&rsquo;s the lie.&rdquo;
Season 2 will draw heavily from The Last of Us Part II, the sequel to the acclaimed 2013 video game by Naughty Dog. Series co-creator Neil Druckmann, who also led development on the game, returns as co-showrunner alongside Mazin. Together, the pair have worked to faithfully adapt the game&rsquo;s narrative arcs, while adding new characters and emotional layers for TV.
Catherine O&rsquo;Hara&rsquo;s character Gail is among those original additions&mdash;not featured in the video game&mdash;offering a new lens through which to explore Joel&rsquo;s guilt and self-doubt.
The Last of Us&nbsp;Season 2 premieres April 14 on HBO and JioCinema in India, with dubs available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. With its complex characters and moral dilemmas, the new chapter promises to push its characters&mdash;and viewers&mdash;into even more morally grey territory.
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Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in a still from ‘The Last of Us’

Showrunner Craig Mazin says Joel and Ellie face the cost of secrets in a darker, emotionally tougher season

The Last of Us S2: Trust on Trial

Showrunner Craig Mazin says Joel and Ellie face the cost of secrets in a darker, emotionally tougher season

April 8, 2025 | 20:46 IST