HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 will have 7 episodes

The second season of HBO’s The Last of Us will run for seven episodes, it’s been confirmed.

Series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann revealed the episode count, which is two fewer than the first season, in an interview with Deadline.

Mazin also reiterated that the show’s second season won’t cover the entirety of The Last of Us Part 2, and that the series could run beyond three seasons.

“The story material that we got from Part 2 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,” he said. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,” Mazin added.

“We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.”

Season two will be released in 2025. New additions to the cast include Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Young Mazino as Jessie, Danny Ramirez as Manny, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Ariela Barer as Mel, and Spencer Lord as Owen.

Having previously acknowledged strong fan demand for The Last of Us Part 3, Naughty Dog president Druckmann recently said he has a concept for a third game in mind and thinks there will be one more chapter to the story.

However, he’s also spoken about wanting to try new things, and Sony’s willingness to let the studio do so.

In an interview published this month, Druckmann said “multiple single-player projects” are currently in development at Naughty Dog.