The Last of Us: all the news about the video game franchise turned TV series

1 week ago 4

There are two great reasons to upgrade to The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Yeah, I know, it seems way too early for a remaster of The Last of Us Part II. The game originally launched on the PS4 in 2020 and has already received an update for those playing on the PS5. It’s not like Ellie, Joel, and Abby need much of an update for modern audiences. But while the slightly enhanced graphics — which include native 4K support and improved frame rates — are nice, they’re not really the reason to play The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Instead, it’s all of the other stuff that turns this into an excellent special edition of the game.
Some of the additions are relatively small. There’s a guitar mode where you can, well, play guitar as much as you want. Using the PlayStation controller’s touchpad to swipe guitar strings was one of the highlights of the original release, and it’s nice to be able to mess around with it freely. I’m sure we’ll see some very cool videos of people rocking out soon. You can also unlock outfits to wear while playing the main game, which is silly but fun. I’m 10 hours deep into a New Game Plus run, and Ellie has been wearing a Death Stranding T-shirt the entire time (even though that game couldn’t exist in TLOU’s timeline).
Read Article >
Get in the post-apocalyptic mood.
Is this really the last of The Last of Us?
In a new interview in Variety, Neil Druckmann, creative director of The Last of Us series, doesn’t seem confident the popular game turned HBO hit will get a third installment. “I guess the only thing I would say is don’t bet on there being more of ‘Last of Us.’ This could be it,” he says in the interview.
The Last of Us season 2 finally has a premiere date
Image: HBO
The Last of Us’ new season 2 trailer puts Joel and Ellie through the wringer
Warner Bros. Discovery has debuted an official teaser trailer for the second season of The Last of Us, and it looks like it’s going to be a rough one for Joel and Ellie — which, if you’ve played The Last of Us Part II, should be no surprise.
“After five years of peace following the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie’s collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind,” according to Warner Bros. Discovery’s official logline for the season.
Read Article >
Joel’s got a lot of explaining to do.
Season two of HBO’s The Last of Us Adaptation will see Catherine O’Hara join the cast as someone very keen on seeing Ellie alive and well. And it looks like Joel’s going to move hell and high water to keep the girl safe in this new preview from the show’s next chapter.
The Last of Us season 2 will be a little bit shorter
Image: HBO
The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us covered the first game in the series, but it looks like season 2 will need a little more time to explore the sequel. In an interview with Deadline, co-creator Craig Mazin explained that the story of The Last of Us Part II will take at least two, and possibly three, seasons to fully cover. And as a result, the show’s second season will be a few episodes shorter than the first.
“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin explained. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.” (Season 1 clocked in at nine episodes, for comparison.)
Read Article >
Mr. Wright goes to (the) Washington (Liberation Front).
A first look at The Last of Us season 2.
We may have to wait until next year to return to the post-apocalyptic show, but HBO has released these images to hold us over. They look like, well, Ellie and Joel. You’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the live-action version of Abby it seems.
1/2Image: HBO
The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann reckons “there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
It’s far from confirmation of a Last of Us Part 3, but co-creator Druckmann has confirmed he’s got a concept in mind for a third entry in the series, should Naughty Dog ever choose to make it:
“I’ve been just thinking about it, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for, now, years I haven’t been able to find that concept. But recently, that’s changed, and I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept that to me is as exciting as [Part 1], as exciting as [Part 2], is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
You haven’t seen the last of The Last of Us.
Because now it’s a documentary. While the remaster of The Last of Us Part II featured cut scenes that you could actually play, giving some fascinating insight into the game’s development, now Naughty Dog has released this meaty two-hour-long movie delving even further into how it was made.
The Last of Us season 2 cast keeps growing.
The HBO series has already added its Dina, Abbie, and Jesse, and now comes word that Catherine O’Hara will be playing... somebody. Deadline reports that she’s joining the show in an “undisclosed role.” But whatever it is, more Catherine O’Hara is never a bad thing.
You can be The Last of Us’ composer. Really.
By playing as the actual composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, in The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s guitar freeplay mode. The banjo is an option, too.
Grounded II.
Naughty Dog is releasing

a documentary for The Last of Us Part II, but hasn’t shared a specific release date. You’ll be able to watch the full thing (officially titled Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II) on YouTube and in The Last of Us Part II Remastered via a post-launch update.
While you wait, you can watch the documentary for the first game right now.
HBO has cast its Dina for The Last of Us.
Another new addition to The Last of Us.
The Last of Us casts Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Kaitlyn Dever will officially take on the role of Abby in the highly anticipated second season of The Last of Us, HBO announced on Tuesday.
Rumors about Dever’s role as Abby in the video game adaptation began circulating late last year. Abby is one of the major characters in The Last of Us Part II, the PlayStation game from which the second season will draw its story, and is a rival to protagonist Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey).
Read Article >
Naughty Dog cancels its The Last of Us multiplayer game
Image: Sony
Naughty Dog announced Thursday that it’s canceled the multiplayer game it was building in The Last of Us universe.
The studio says it has been in pre-production on The Last of Us Online even while working on The Last of Us Part II. “We were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed,” according to a blog post about the news.
Read Article >
The second season of The Last of Us will debut in 2025
Image: HBO
The Last of Us Part II’s roguelike mode looks brutal.
In a trailer for the new “No Return” mode (which might get buried by... you know), you can see how you’ll be able to play as different TLOU characters and take on zombies while dealing with “unique gameplay modifiers” (like one that appears to make a zombie invisible).
The mode will be included with The Last of Us Part II Remastered, which is set to release on January 19th.
Production on The Last of Us’ second season starts in February.
Showrunner Craig Mazin said in a Variety panel that production begins on February 12th. The date’s not a total surprise, as HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys recently said that production would start in early 2024, but now we know exactly when it starts.
Now we just need to know who is going to play Abby. Hopefully we’ll find out soon, given that the role has apparently already been cast.
Sony announces The Last of Us Part II remaster for PS5
Naughty Dog officially announced The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PS5 on Friday evening following a bunch of leaks about the game earlier in the day. The game will be released on January 19th, 2024 — just like the leaks said.
The biggest new addition seems to be a “roguelike survival mode” called No Return that’s “designed to let players prove their mettle in randomized encounters and experience The Last of Us Part II’s combat in a fresh experience,” Naughty Dog’s Jonathon Dornbush said in the announcement blog post. You’ll be able to play as some new characters and work through “various stealth and combat encounters that will pit you against a range of enemies, with unique twists that can add new, unexpected factors to any given encounter.”
Read Article >
Rumors of a remastered Last of Us Part II mount.
The second season of The Last of Us might be a long ways away
Image: HBO
We might be waiting a while for more of HBO’s The Last of Us. HBO announced in January that a second season of the excellent adaptation was in the works, and on Thursday, HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys said that the season will enter production in early 2024, according to Variety.
Bloys said that production was delayed because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes (the latter of which is still going on). The show also wasn’t on HBO’s slate for 2024, Variety says, meaning it might not come out until 2025 at the earliest.
Read Article >
The Last of Us finally works on Steam Deck — with worse-than-PS3 level graphics
Naughty Dog announces ‘brand-new single player experience’ alongside Last of Us multiplayer delay
Image: Sony
Naughty Dog’s got a new single-player game in the works.
The Uncharted developer was expected to show off its The Last Of Us multiplayer project at this week’s PlayStation Showcase. It didn’t, but on Friday, it did share some news about the game as well as a surprise announcement that it’s working on a totally new game.
Read Article >