Summary
A new trailer for Season 2 of HBO’sThe Last of Ushas been shared to celebrate The Last of Us Day, and it features a noticeable lack of Pedro Pascal’s Joel. No prizes for guessing why.
Ever since The Last of Us launched all the way back in 2013,September 26 has marked “The Last of Us Day”, due to it being the in-universe date when the cordyceps virus outbreak kicked off. In the years since the first game’s release, Naughty Dog has shared new details and announcements to celebrate the occasion.
Although many fans assumed that this year’s event would be much lower-keythan previously considering how there’s no new game on the horizon, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Out of nowhere,HBO decided to drop the first full trailer for Season 2 of The Last of Us, which gives us our best look yet at the adaptation.
The Last Of Us Trailer Gives Us A Detailed Look At Season 2
Despite being labelled a “teaser”, the latest look at The Last of Us Season 2 shows way more than we’ve ever seen before, including detailed looks at characters like Jesse, Abby, Isaac, and even the Seraphites. We also get to see a lot of key events from the second game recreated, such as Dinah and Ellie making their way through an abandoned subway, and Joel giving Ellie her guitar.
Perhaps the most notable thing about the trailer, though, is that Joel is conspicuously absent from a lot of it. He’s seen at the start with a therapist and makes a few appearances throughout, but most of the footage doesn’t include him at all and it seems that he’s not going to have anywhere near as much of a presence as last time.
Big spoiler warning for The Last of Us Part 2 to follow.
I’ve danced around it enough now but it’s clear that the latest trailer is teasing Joel’s ultimate fate at the hands of Abby, who kills him towards the start of the second game. Joel does appear in flashback sequences after the fact (something we see a bit of in the trailer), but he’s obviously not a part of the story like he was in the first season.
Of course, there was no way HBO could adapt The Last of Us Part 2 without including Joel’s death, but it’s becoming clearer and clearer that it’s inevitably going to happen. Since the new season is still set for “2025” with no concrete release date, we’ll have to anxiously wait until we see what his fate is going to be.
