We’ll be reunited with Joel and Ellie before June 30, 2025, apparently

Ellie raises a shotgun in a barn in The Last of Us season 2

The Last of Us season is apparently going to drop sometime in 2025’s first six months (Image credit: HBO)

The Last of Us season 2 is expected to release in the “first half” of next year, according to HBO chief Casey Bloys.

Speaking to Deadline after the 2024 Primetime Emmys award ceremony, Bloys implied that the hugely popular dystopian drama series would return to our screens before June 30, 2025. Asked when The Last of Us‘ sophomore season would arrive on HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) streaming platform Max, Bloys said: “Well, all I’ll say now, generally first half of the year, I expect them [The Last of Us season 2 and recent Emmy winner Hacks] to be in the Emmy window [for 2025].”

Bloys’ comment won’t come as a complete shock to anyone who’s followed season 2’s development. The Last of Us‘ next chapter has been in the works since it was renewed in early 2023 and, with filming starting in January 2024 before wrapping in late August, its post-production phase – save for the odd reshoot or two – is well underway. HBO all but confirmed that one of the best Max shows would return sometime next year in a thrilling new Max trailer that contained snippets of footage from The Last of Us season 2, too, but it’s nonetheless pleasing to hear that it’ll be here sooner rather than later.

A perfect day for a zombie outbreak

Joel looks at someone off-screen in a dimly lit room in The Last of Us season 2

Cheer up, Joel, season 2 is on its way! (Image credit: HBO)

Happy though I am that The Last of Us season 2’s release window has been shortened to the first six months of 2025, it’s still difficult to determine when the next installment will debut on Max and HBO (US), Sky and Now TV (UK), and Binge (Australia). Even if its post-production phase is a lengthy one, it’s only likely to rule out a January or February 2025 return for the Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey-starring show.

But there is one particular date – one set between January 1 and June 30 – that would be a perfect release date for The Last of Us‘ second season. And no, I’m not taking about Outbreak Day that, for anyone unfamiliar with Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us game series, which the HBO show is based on, occurred on September 26. Instead, I’m talking about June 19.

Why is that date so special? Because it’s when The Last of Us Part 2 was originally released on the PlayStation 4. Indeed, Naughty Dog’s highly anticipated videogame sequel launched on June 19, 2020, so it would be especially fitting if season 2 of The Last of Us TV show, which will authentically adapt huge swathes of the aforementioned game’s story, arrived on that date.

The only problem with my theory is that June 19, 2025 falls on a Thursday. Traditionally, HBO releases new shows, or brand-new seasons of a series, on a Sunday evening, which throws a spanner in the works of what I’m proposing. But, with the US cable network opting to release the first episode of The Penguin, the first TV spin-off of 2022’s The Batman, debuting on Max and HBO this Thursday (September 19), WBD has started to show a willingness to experiment with its usual release schedule format. Don’t bet against The Last of Us season 2 doing likewise, then, if HBO and WBD allow it to premiere on the five-year anniversary of the game franchise’s second entry.