The Last Of Us Season 3 Risks Repeating Season 2's Fatal Problem

Published Sep 20, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

In a recent interview with Deadline, HBO boss Casey Bloys provided some exciting updates. He confirmed that The White Lotus season 4 will premiere in 2027, he confirmed that Harry Potter will aim to have a new season out every year, and he teased that Nathan Fielder is working on a new season of The Rehearsal. Bloys also mentioned that The Last of Us season 3 is being planned as the final season.

This was the expected outcome. After a stellar first season, The Last of Us season 2 proved to be much more polarizing. Neil Druckmann has already jumped ship, and Craig Mazin has lined up a Baldur’s Gate series as his next project. Following the backlash to season 2, everyone involved is heading for the door, so the one-more-and-done model makes sense.

It’s not surprising that The Last of Us is ending with season 3, but it could be a problem. There were many issues with season 2 — the lack of subtlety, the lack of subtext, the lack of violence in a fable about the cycle of violence — but the biggest, broadest issue was simply that it felt rushed. Cramming Ellie’s quest for revenge into just seven episodes, and spending the first three of those episodes in Jackson, reduced the story to the bare, essential plot points, without enough buildup in between. Where the game had gradually chronicled Ellie’s descent into darkness over the course of 10 hours, the TV show did a speedrun. Ellie turned from an innocent kid into a cold-blooded killer from one scene to the next.

Now, season 3 risks feeling just as rushed by cramming Abby’s side of the story and the epilogue in Santa Barbara all into one season. Realistically, there’s only about two or three episodes’ worth of story in those final levels. There’s too much to fit into a feature-length series finale, but there’s not enough to warrant a whole fourth season, so Mazin is stuck between a rock and a hard place chopping it up into TV-sized chunks.

Can The Last Of Us Season 3 End The Series On A High Note?

Liane Hentscher / ©HBO / Courtesy Everett Collection

After a shaky second season, can The Last of Us course-correct and go out on a high note by the end of season 3? Season 2 already spoiled the best part of Abby’s story — the revelation that this supposed monster we’ve been hunting was also avenging her dad — by revealing it all upfront, before Abby had even confronted Joel. But that doesn’t mean season 3 can’t still do something great with Abby’s story.

Abby’s story is a lot closer to Joel’s story from season 1 than Ellie’s story from season 2. Ellie’s story is all about her quest for vengeance — as she seeks retribution for Joel’s murder, she loses her soul — but Abby’s story is all about the road to redemption that comes after. Abby already sought retribution for her dad’s death, lost her soul, exacted revenge, and realized it didn’t solve anything.

Killing Joel didn’t fill the void left by losing her dad, so she’s looking for a new purpose, and then she meets a young Seraphite runaway named Lev. Just as Joel did in season 1, Abby confronts her grief by taking a bright-eyed little kid under her wing. Where Joel and Ellie became a surrogate father and daughter, Abby and Lev share more of a big sister/little brother relationship, and that becomes the emotional backbone of her story.

If The Last of Us season 3 can recapture that heartwarming dynamic — if Kaitlyn Dever and Kyriana Kratter share the same electric on-screen chemistry that Laura Bailey and Ian Alexander did in the game — then it has a chance of salvaging the series and going out on a high note. The ending of The Last of Us Part II is already perfect, so, as long as they adapt those final moments shot-for-shot like they did with the ending of Part I, then HBO’s The Last of Us will have a perfect ending (even if it had a less-than-perfect middle).

Source: Deadline

The Last of Us