After a long two-year wait since the first season, season two of “The Last of Us” is finally out. This show is based on the video game “The Last of Us,” made by Naughty Dog, who released the first game in 2013 and the second in 2020. They are also known for the “Crash Bandicoot” and “Uncharted” game series, which are widely known in gaming communities.
The background for the storyline of “The Last of Us” began due to an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus, a genus of parasitic fungi that primarily infects insects. The fungus spread through bites and airborne spores that ravaged through the United States, transforming people into aggressive creatures. One of the main characters, Joel Miller, who lived in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, tries to flee with his brother, Tommy Miller, and daughter, Sarah Miller, but as they flee, Sarah is shot by a soldier and dies in Joel’s arms.
Viewers jump to 20 years later, and civilization is decimated by the infection. Joel is working as a smuggler with his partner, Theresa “Tess” Servopoulos, in a quarantine zone out in Boston, Massachusetts. Joel and Tess have to hunt down Robert, a black-market dealer, to recover a stolen weapons cache he traded with the Fireflies, a rebel militia opposing the quarantine zone authorities. The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, promised to double their cache in return for smuggling a 14-year-old girl, Ellie Williams.
Anyone who has played the game will pretty much know everything that happens or is going to happen in the show, but it's still worth watching. With amazing casting, Pedro Pascal plays Joel in the show, and Bella Ramsey plays Ellie. Some people don’t like the casting for Ellie and think Annie Wersching, who played Tess in the game, would've been the best option. Still, many think Ramsey portrays the character amazingly. Many might not know that Kaitlyn Dever almost had the role 10 years prior. She revealed in an interview that “Screen Gems,” a production company, was planning on adapting the hit game into a movie in 2014, just a year after the game was released. Kaitlyn Dever now plays Abigail “Abby” Anderson in the second season of “The Last of Us.”
In this new season, viewers jump to five years after the events of the last episode of the first season, and there are three new main cast members introduced. As previously stated, Kaitlyn Dever is Abby, Isabela Merced is Dina and Young Mazino is Jesse. Robert, Dina and Jesse’s last names are never explicitly stated, especially in the game. Dina is Ellie’s love interest in the second season and Jesse’s ex. Dina helps Ellie move forward in her “quest for revenge” against Abby, making her a significant person in the storyline.
Altogether, this show captures the game perfectly. Those who don't like the casting and think they could've done better can't deny the acting is spectacular. Viewers can watch “The Last of Us” on Max and on Hulu with a premium subscription. Season two premiered on April 13 with weekly episodes, and all episodes will be out by May 25, with seven episodes in total, compared to the first season’s nine episodes.