Highlights
- HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us has been successful in attracting a wider audience, with its first season staying true to the original game.
- The show's future seasons may set up the third game by focusing on different characters, leaving fans curious about the game's direction.
- The show's narrative decisions and how it ends its seasons may provide hints about the potential plot and involvement of characters in The Last of Us 3.
The Last of Us as a franchise was significantly bolstered earlier this year with the release of HBO's direct TV adaptation of the IP. The show was critically acclaimed and opened up the franchise to a much wider audience, with the show's first season focusing on the narrative of the IP's first 2013 video game release.
Longstanding fans of the franchise were impressed with how faithful the show was to the original The Last of Us, with the show going to great lengths to recreate key sequences and dialogue from the game. However, with the next few seasons of the show likely adapting the story of The Last of Us 2, the series could set up the third game in what characters it chooses to focus on above others. With this in mind, the show could end up being a defining element of the games' future that fans need to pay close attention to.
The Narrative Power of HBO's The Last of Us: Season Two and Beyond
Many consider The Last of Us' TV series as a shining example of what video game adaptations can be capable of, with the show breaking a lot of the stigma surrounding such projects. The show drew lots of viewers from the wide player base of The Last of Us itself, with the star-power of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey drawing others who experienced the franchise's story for the very first time.
The Last of Us dominated TV viewership during the run of its first season, amassing 837 million watch minutes from American audiences in a single week, beating the likes of House of the Dragon. This huge initial success comes with a price, however, with it being all but confirmed that season two and potentially beyond for the show will follow the general plot of The Last of Us Part 2.
The Last of Us' Show Might Dictate the Games' Future
With how faithful season one of the show was to the source material, it is still likely that the following seasons' plots will remain fairly consistent with the game. This leaves the show in a predicament with how it chooses to end things once it reaches the narrative climax of TLoU 2, with the plot of the unreleased The Last of Us 3 being completely unknown to fans. In this way, the manner in which HBO chooses to end the next seasons of the show may be a huge indicator of what may come in TLoU 3, with Ellie's involvement in the game being a huge point of debate among fans.
It is likely that Naughty Dog will be in close contact with HBO in regard to the franchise's narrative future, and season 2 and beyond of The Last of Us will want to gear themselves towards the eventual plot of TLoU 3. How these seasons choose to deal with Ellie and end her story will be a massive hint towards her involvement in a third game, meaning dedicated fans may want to pay closer attention to the show's future.
While HBO's The Last of Us is known for closely following its source material, the following seasons could easily deviate from the games to better adapt to TV production cycles and audiences.
As things stand, The Last of Us 3 is not expected to release until 2027/28 at the earliest, meaning the show runs the risk of surpassing the games in terms of how far it tells its story. This ultimately puts more importance on how the show decides to end things with its TLoU 2-inspired seasons, and these next steps may just put to bed some of the most passionate debates surrounding The Last of Us' videogame future.
The Last Of Us
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Main Genre
- Horror
- Creator
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
- Network
- HBO Max
