The Last of Us creators reveals season two details, including a side story with Joe Pantoliano

The second season of The Last Us is just around the corner (April 14!) and fans should expect some heavy-duty emotional beats.

Those familiar with the video game’s story already have a clue what they’re in for, and are already bracing themselves.

The post-apocalyptic series is drawn from the best-selling video game series from Naughty Dog studios and was, arguably, the first highly acclaimed and popular game-to-TV adaptation (sorry, The Witcher fans).

The story follows Ellie, a teen girl immune to the virus that’s turning people into a mindless fungus zombies, and Joel, a hardened man still grieving the loss of his daughter. Joel agreed to transport Ellie across the US to a team of doctors hoping to unlock her genetic secrets for a vaccine.

Season two of the series will pick up the action at the same point as the The Last of Us Part II game, but will stretch out to at least one more season.

Even if you know what’s coming, series creators Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (who is also behind the game), has promised there will be divergences from the source material.

For one thing, there will be expanded story for a character who is only mentioned but not seen in the game. Joe Pantoliano has been cast to play Eugene, whose abandoned cannabis den is discovered by Ellie and a friend.

“I get excited when I see these opportunities,” Druckmann told Variety. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Eugene that well!’. The story we told (in the game) was somewhat superficial. The way this character comes in really gets to the heart of Joel and Ellie and their relationship.”

In the first season, one of the show’s most lauded episodes was one that did a similar thing. It took two peripheral game characters, played in the series by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, and shaded in their backstory.

The result was a tender, beautifully written and superbly performed side story that saw both Offerman and Bartlett nominated for Emmys (they were up against each other in the same category and Offerman won).

Pantoliano joined a cast that in addition to returning players Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey and Gabriel Luna added to the roster Kaitlyn Dever, Young Mazino, Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Wright, Isabela Merced and Alanna Ubach.

Dever has a central role as Abby, a game character who was controversial among certain, crybaby segments of the gaming community who objected to her muscular frame and use of violence, and the fact The Last of Us Part II put players in her perspective.

Druckmann revealed that he, his co-writer Halley Gross, the voiceover actors and the Naughty Dog team were inundated with death threats and homophobic, anti-Semitic and misogynistic missives.

While there were moments when Druckmann started to doubt himself, Mazin, who had already started to work on the TV adaptation with him at that time, told him, “Who cares what they think? I’m telling you it’s awesome, listen to me”.

Mazin added to Variety that The Last of Us season two is not about more of the same.

“One of the notes that I resent the most is ‘We loved this thing – more of it please!’,” he said. “No, you love it because that’s the right amount of it. When you do more, what makes it special starts to dissipate. It becomes comfort food. And if there’s one thing about The Last of Us, it is not comfortable.”

The Last of Us season two will be streaming on the soon-to-be-launched Max platform from April 14