‘The Final of Us’: What you possibly can count on from Season 2

Properly, we endured and survived, child woman.

The Final of Us ended its first season nearly two years in the past in March 2023, leaving us nothing lower than emotional husks, nothing greater than hungry for extra deep character-based trauma in Season 2. However after that chilly laborious finale, I am certain you have bought as many questions as now we have.

Except you have performed the sport’s sequel, that’s. 

For individuals who have not skilled Naughty Canine’s lauded sequel The Final of Us Half II, the longer term is unsure for Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal). The sequence, like the sport, ended with Joel’s polarising resolution to save lots of Ellie, sacrificing a possible treatment for the Cordyceps an infection and executing your entire Fireflies’ medical crew, together with their chief, Marlene (Merle Dandridge). And now? Ellie and Joel have made it again to Jackson, the place the longer term is unsure.

In case you’re dying to know what’s in retailer for Season 2, we’re about to get spoilery with first-hand sport data, trailer hints, and first appears to be like to contemplate a few of the main plot factors and characters you possibly can count on director Craig Mazin and creator Neil Druckmann to get caught into. We can’t wreck the ending, however we’ll set you up with some monumental moments to uh…sit up for?

If you have not performed the The Final of Us Half II, nonetheless, you may wish to flip again and contemplate our burning questions article as a substitute, which is freed from sport (although not present) spoilers.

For everybody else, let’s delve into the most important storyline moments we will count on to see in Season 2 — together with the one which HBO had higher count on a riot over.

The Final of Us Season 2 means terrifying new Contaminated

Whereas The Final of Us Half II did not utterly reinvent the wheel on the subject of new Contaminated, there’s a couple of additions we won’t wait to see. The most recent HBO trailer signifies airborne Cordyceps spores will likely be added as a hurdle for our protagonists, one thing Season 1 eradicated for on-screen practicality/Pedro Pascal visibility.

One of the vital terrifying new sorts of Contaminated would be the Stalkers, who’re briefly proven within the trailer scurrying about within the darkness. These stealthy trackers peep out from their hiding locations and use echolocation like Clickers. However they’ve the power to see who they’re charging at — and boy, do they cost. Actually, I hate them a lot.

We’re additionally eager to see if there’s the opportunity of a Rat King this season, the sport’s horrific amalgamation of Contaminated in a single hulking mass — suppose The Witcher.

We’re going again to Jackson

It is time to head again to Jackson, Wyoming, of us. The fortified settlement the place Joel and Ellie lastly discover his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and spouse Maria (Rutina Wesley) is first seen in The Final of Us Season 1, episode 6. And it is the place Season 2 will doubtless start.

Jackson is a key location within the second sport. We do not truly go to the city within the first sport in any respect; we simply see it within the distance. However Jackson is the place Season 1 of the present ends, as Joel and Ellie have a confrontation on a ridge above the city after every little thing that went down in Salt Lake Metropolis. And Joel lies.

It is doubtless Season 2 will choose up the place The Final of Us Half II does, 4 years later. Because the trailer reveals, Tommy and Maria now have a younger son, who does not exist within the sport. Joel and Ellie reside in their very own locations in Jackson, with a serious pressure on their relationship. By now, Ellie is nineteen and doing Contaminated patrols along with her horse Shimmer, who made a candy cameo in Season 1, episode 6 as a foal. And he or she’s about to fall head over heels.

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The Final of Us Season 2 will introduce Ellie’s subsequent large love

Ellie’s tragically quick romance along with her greatest pal Riley (Storm Reid) was her past love, however definitely not her final. And in Season 1, an Easter egg had avid gamers abuzz, with the fleeting look of a personality integral to Ellie’s life in The Final of Us Half II.

In episode 6, when Joel and Ellie are within the Jackson meals corridor, there is a second when Ellie’s manners fail her and she or he throws a barb at a staring woman. Followers of the sport surmised that this was Dina, Ellie’s future love curiosity — and in HBO’s podcast for the present, neither Mazin or Druckmann confirmed nor denied it.

Performed by Madame Net‘s Isabela Merced in Season 2, Dina is a posh, kickass character who will play a vastly vital position. In The Final of Us Half II, the sport begins with one of many franchise’s greatest scenes: a Jackson barn dance the place Dina and Ellie share their first kiss. Their relationship grows with each patrol, each tragedy, each secret they share collectively — together with Dina’s main reveal. Within the sport, Dina’s deep love for Ellie means she joins her quest for revenge: “You go, I go. End of story.”

One other Season 2 beginner will likely be Ellie’s greatest pal Jesse, Dina’s ex-boyfriend from Jackson, who’s performed by Beef‘s Younger Mazino. Jesse tracks Ellie and Dina on their travels to be able to assist them on their quest to seek out the folks accountable for probably the most stunning second of the sequence.

Yep, it is gonna damage.

The Final of Us Season 2 will do it: Joel’s demise

For followers of the sport, we all know what’s coming in Season 2. And we additionally know it will break followers of the present, because it did us whereas taking part in The Final of Us Half II.

I am speaking about Joel’s demise. It is one of the crucial sudden, traumatising occasions I’ve ever encountered in a online game — the brutal homicide of a protagonist you have spent actually a whole bunch of hours taking part in, understanding, and changing into hooked up to. You have survived a lot with Joel, as has Ellie, and Naughty Canine made us watch as her beloved father determine is killed in entrance of her — the sport mechanics actually pin Ellie (that is you) to the bottom on this scene.

Sure, Joel’s demise allowed Naughty Canine to distinguish the video games and introduce new character dynamics, specifically transferring Ellie into younger maturity. However I’ve a sense this episode will likely be one of the crucial talked about, most hands-in-the-air, Crimson Marriage ceremony-level, how-could-they-do-this-to-us episode of Season 2. Contemplating the skyrocketing fame and web worship of Pedro Pascal, this devastating second within the narrative will be throughout your feed. Put together for a number of stable weeks of grieving on-line.

Joel’s brutal demise by the hands of recent character Abby Anderson (extra on her under) will doubtless be in an early episode of Season 2, rattling viewers to the core. However do not despair totally, Pascal followers. The Final of Us Half II options many flashback scenes with the pair, together with an all-important, dinosaur-related reminiscence, scenes in involving Joel’s guitar, and a serious reveal about why precisely there’s stress between Joel and Ellie firstly of the sequel. Season 2 will not be utterly Pascal-free, even after his character’s demise.

Bella Ramsey can have room to shine in Season 2

Season 2 is all about Ellie. Our protagonist’s grief and rage in The Final of Us Half II will give Ramsey the problem they need to take an already unimaginable efficiency even additional. Pascal and Ramsey have constructed the identical stage of chemistry and bond voice actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s Joel and Ellie did within the video games, and it is going to break hearts to see Bellie and Pedge destroyed like this. However Ramsey will even have loads of motion scenes forward of them too, as Ellie’s struggle scenes actually stage up this season.

The Final of Us Season 2 will give attention to a shellshocked Ellie wanting solely vengeance, monitoring Joel’s killers to their base in Seattle. Tommy goes after them himself, pondering Ellie will simply sit tight in Jackson, however after all that does not occur. So, the occasions of The Final of Us Season 2 will mirror these of the primary season — we’re at all times in search of Tommy in TLOU it appears. However with the addition of Tommy and Maria’s son as seen within the trailer, Tommy’s resolution takes on a really totally different gentle.

So, Season 2 is one other street journey, and can give attention to Ellie’s journey from from Wyoming to Washington. As Ellie will get increasingly more brutal in her searching techniques, fuelled by grief and rage, Ramsey can have one hell of a journey on their fingers. That scene from episode 8 wherein Joel will get actual chilly and torture-y with the map trick? It rubbed off, folks.

Season 2 can be all about Abby

The Final of Us Season 2 will introduce the sport character of Abby Anderson, Joel’s aforementioned killer. Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart, Apple Cider Vinegar, Unbelievable) takes on the polarising position, who will gasoline one of the crucial upsetting moments within the story — however bear in mind, she is a character. And he or she’s a personality you truly play as for half the sport in The Final of Us Half II, and all of the uncomfortable attachment that goes with it.

The phrase “villain” is subjective as at all times for people on this franchise, relying in your perspective. (Besides David. David is a villain.) Abby’s journey in Season 2 will trigger viewers to rethink what makes somebody a monster on this post-apocalyptic hell. As devastating as her actions are, Abby’s character expands the world of The Final of Us past Ellie’s expertise. There will be loads of world-building to sit up for with the place Abby calls residence: the WLF.

Season 2 introduces two new factions: WLF and the Seraphites

Finally, saving Abby’s life from Contaminated past the security of the Jackson settlement will likely be Joel’s undoing, as she’s a part of a Seattle militia group generally known as the Washington Liberation Entrance (WLF), aka the Wolves. Led by Isaac Dixon (sensible casting with American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright), the Wolves are comprised of former Fireflies and recruits, and their base in Seattle is certain to be spectacular set design. There’s a complete forged of recent characters right here with their very own connections and backstories, with actors Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, and Spencer Lord becoming a member of Dever.

In Season 2, we’ll additionally meet the faction behind unusual symbols and preachy graffiti, the Seraphites, additionally known as the Scars — you may know them by their self-inflicted facial scarring. They are a cult-like group and direct rivals to the Wolves for management of Seattle. Within the trailer, you may spy them with their bows, arrows, and tendency to hold folks within the forest. And inside this faction, we’ll meet two beloved characters, siblings Lev and Yara, who can have a serious impression on Abby’s life.

It isn’t clear whether or not the Rattlers, one other horrific faction in The Final of Us Half II, will function this season. Hope not? Hope so? I can not inform what I would like.

Will we hear Pedro Pascal sing Pearl Jam in episode 1?

On the very starting of The Final of Us Half II, Joel presents Ellie a guitar and the promise of classes, however not earlier than he performs a bit of one thing on it. He picks Pearl Jam’s “Future Days,” a somber ballad that begins with the becoming lyric “If I ever were to lose you / I’d surely lose myself.” This begs the query: Will we hear Pedro Pascal himself sing a bit of Pearl Jam in Season 2, episode 1?

The Final of Us Season 1 is now streaming on Max. Season 2 premieres on HBO and Max in 2025.