The Last of Us to Get Third Season

Variety reports that HBO has renewed The Last of Us for a third season ahead of the second. The seven-episode series will debut on April 13 on Max. In a statement to Variety, The Last of Us writer Craig Mazin said the team approached the second season with the goal of “making something we can be proud of.”

The new episodes will take place five years after the events of the first season. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return to their roles. Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Jeffrey Wright and Joe Pantoliano will also join the project. Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) became the showrunner of the first two seasons. He previously told Entertainment Weekly that the seven episodes of the second season will be “dense” and “calorie-heavy”. “Each episode is like a meal. You can have a light dinner, or you can go to a restaurant with 12 courses.

Ahead of its launch, The Last of Us season 2 has earned an 83% on Metacritic and a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the cinematography, acting, and action, while criticizing the uneven pacing and lack of logical resolution.