The Last Of Us Is Officially Replacing Joel & Ellie In Season 3

Published Sep 24, 2026, 11:30 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.

HBO’s The Last of Us has made some drastic departures from its source material — it told us who Abby’s dad was upfront, it sent Joel to therapy, and it had Ellie kill next to no one in Seattle — but the season 2 finale left the game’s biggest, craziest twist intact. In the TV show, just like in the game, Abby confronts Ellie at the theater, holds her at gunpoint, and we cut to black. Then, we flash back to three days ago, where we see Abby waking up at the W.L.F.’s base of operations, with no idea that Joel’s family are coming for revenge.

Season 2 followed Ellie on a three-day rampage through the city in pursuit of her mortal enemy, and now, The Last of Us season 3 will follow her mortal enemy on the same three days. The game had the benefit of literally putting the audience in Abby’s shoes, which created a shorthand to endear players to this new protagonist, but the TV show can’t do that, so it’ll be an uphill struggle. It was already tough enough for the game to get its audience to empathize with Joel’s killer, but the TV adaptation will have to make that connection without the inherent emotional attachment that gamers have to their playable characters.

The beauty of this story is also what makes it so challenging. The first half made us hate Abby so relentlessly, then the second half shows us that she’s a human being, too.

Abby & Lev Are The New Joel & Ellie In The Last Of Us Season 3

Ellie’s story in The Last of Us Part II is all about revenge — her dad is killed and she ruthlessly hunts down the people responsible to make them pay — but Abby’s story is all about redemption. Abby already got her revenge — she lost her dad, found his killer, and made him pay — but it didn’t fix anything; it didn’t make her feel any better. So, when we catch up with her on Seattle Day 1, she’s a lost soul, emotionally empty, desperately seeking a new purpose in life, one that will hopefully leave her feeling more fulfilled. That’s where Lev comes in.

Just as Ellie guided Joel back to the light, Lev guides Abby back to the light. After being strung up by a noose, Abby joins forces with a pair of runaway Seraphites — Lev and his older sister Yara — out of necessity, to escape the woods. Over the course of the next three days, Abby warms up to these two kids from the other side of the war, and finds that looking after them makes her feel much, much better than killing Joel did.

Abby and Lev are essentially the new Joel and Ellie. Their relationship is the emotional backbone of Abby’s half of the game, and getting that relationship right is the key to winning over TV audiences. Kaitlyn Dever already proved to be the perfect Abby in season 2; now, she just needs the right on-screen dynamic with Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’s Kyriana Kratter.

Abby Is More Like Joel Than She'd Like To Admit

Liane Hentscher / ©HBO / Courtesy Everett Collection

In many ways, Abby’s story in The Last of Us season 3 is a parallel to Ellie’s — they both lost their dad, they both lost themselves in their quest for revenge, and they’re both good people underneath all the anger and the violence — but her actual arc is a mirror of Joel’s story. Abby has a lot more in common with her arch-nemesis than she’d like to admit.

Both Abby and Joel are hardened killers who start off on the road to redemption when they take an innocent kid under their wing and protect them from the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world. Audiences fell in love with The Last of Us because they fell in love with Joel and Ellie, so replacing them in season 3 is a huge risk, but Abby and Lev are just as lovable in a totally different way. Joel and Ellie have a father-daughter relationship, but Abby and Lev are more like a big sister and little brother.

The Last of Us