{"id":625713,"date":"2026-09-15T21:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625713\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T21:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:22:08","slug":"the-last-of-us-season-3-is-now-likely-to-be-the-shows-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625713\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Last of Us’ Season 3 Is Now Likely to Be the Show’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was always a question of how much<\/a> Last of Us we would be getting. Before even a single episode of the show aired, co-creator Craig Mazin was being asked about how many seasons were planned<\/a> and whether it could go above and beyond the story of the video games. Later, he even floated the idea of a season four,<\/a> though season two\u2019s structure seemed to suggest<\/a> a potential end. And now, one of the people who would definitely know has weighed in.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Deadline<\/a> after the Emmys, HBO CEO Casey Bloys said that The Last of Us season three is coming at some point in 2027 and that \u201cI think [showrunner] Craig [Mazin] has planned it as the final season.\u201d Which, of course, is not a definitive statement, but it\u2019s worth noting that Bloys was not as certain of Mazin\u2019s plans as recently as earlier this year<\/a>. Plus, if Mazin\u2019s boss is under the impression season three is the end, it\u2019s probably the end.<\/p>\n

If that is indeed the case, it makes sense on several levels. Season two of The Last of Us adapted the first half of The Last of Us Part II video game and season three is set to do the second half. That game, and the show, split its story between two characters, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) in this season and Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in the upcoming season. That\u2019s where the game series ends, at least for now<\/a>. And with game and series creator Neil Druckmann no longer working on the show,<\/a> adapting that second half of his game seems like a nice way to keep him involved in spirit.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the simple fact that season two of The Last of Us didn\u2019t light up the world in the way season one did. In large part, that\u2019s probably due to the fact that season one starred one of the biggest movie stars out there, Pedro Pascal, and season two killed him off in an early episode. But Pascal probably wouldn\u2019t have even done The Last of Us at all had that not been built into the DNA of the story. So he giveth and taketh away.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, The Last of Us Part II video game is a hugely satisfying conclusion to the series (which is rumored to continue<\/a> with a new game at some point), so if Mazin can capture that with season three, it\u2019s better to go out on top. The last thing any of us want is five seasons of wheel-spinning. Three and out feels right.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows<\/a> to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books<\/a> that should be on your radar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was always a question of how much Last of Us we would be getting. Before even a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[85272,179973,93,3284,61,60,36108,282],"class_list":["post-625713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-casey-bloys","tag-craig-mazin","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-last-of-us","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}