The Last of Us Season 2 set to make several major plot changes

The Last of Us finally returns to HBO next month, with the second series set to premiere on 13 April - or the early hours of 14 April if you’re in the UK watching via Sky or NOW TV. It’ll, of course, adapt The Last of Us Part II and I’ll admit, I’ve been trying to work out for years just how the series might take on that task.

I could wax lyrical on my theories about how the series might tackle the game’s structure, but I’m not here on this occasion to distract you with pure speculation. I come to you armed with evidence. You see, I’ve sifted through the series’ latest trailer with a fine-toothed comb, looking for any discrepancies that may reveal where season two will depart from the game. And let me tell you, I have made some very interesting discoveries. If you’re not familiar with The Last of Us Part II, proceed with caution. Spoilers lie ahead.

Before I begin, you can view the trailer for yourself below.

I want to begin with the most startling discovery. You’ll likely remember the Part II scene where Abby is almost hung and gutted by seraphites; it’s the same scene where she meets Yara and Lev. Well, I fear that Ellie may find herself in that particular predicament instead. In the latter half of the trailer, a brunette female is seen struggling to maintain her footing as a noose sits around her neck. This person’s face is obscured, but the holsters on her jeans match those shown to be worn by Ellie in other shots from the trailer.

Why might they do this? Well, when Ellie meets the scars in the game, she simply takes an arrow to the shoulder which wouldn’t exactly make for thrilling TV, whereas Abby’s run-in with the scars is perhaps one of the game’s most memorable scenes, so you can understand why they may want to introduce the group this way for a TV audience. But what does this mean for Yara and Lev? Well, this is something that’s concerning me. Neither character has been cast or if they have, their casting hasn’t been made public. Originally, I assumed this meant the duo had been held back for season three, but the trailer has me feeling a tad dubious. If Abby does still befriend Yara and Lev, they’re hardly going to save her from being hung. We can’t have the same scene play out twice.

Credit / HBO, SIE

There’s also the fact that the new trailer features two characters who fulfill a very similar role. Partway through, the viewer is shown what I’m assuming to be a scar father and daughter. The duo hears the scars’ distinctive whistling, appear to look alarmed and then run away. They wouldn’t be running away from their own people unless they were defecting, which, as you likely know, is Yara and Lev’s storyline. Listen, it stands every chance that this duo could be killed off immediately, showing the risk of defecting and therefore setting up Yara and Lev’s tale.

There’s more to consider though. If Ellie is almost hung by the scars, how does she escape? Well, while the trailer initially shows the father and daughter duo running during the day, it then later features a shot of them running through the woods at night. Ellie is seemingly shown to be in her hanging predicament at night … could this new duo help her escape like Yara and Lev helped Abby? It certainly feels like that’s what’s happening. I’m not against it by any means, I just hope Yara and Lev still find a place in this story.

Credit / HBO, SIE

The second major departure revealed by the trailer is that it’s seemingly Dina who is out on patrol with Joel in place of Tommy when the duo are targeted by the Salt Lake City crew. In several shots, Dina and Joel are shown together alone out on horseback in what is clearly the lead-up to that scene - and it also makes sense as Tommy is shown in other clips to be defending Jackson from the incoming infected horde. It’s an interesting change.

In the game, Tommy is knocked out anyway so his not being there anymore doesn’t make a ton of difference, but this’ll certainly change Ellie and Dina’s dynamic. Does Dina being there for Joel’s final moments bring the duo closer together? Will it for any reason be a cause of contention? It’s possible.

Credit / HBO, SIE

Which leads me on to the next departure: the horde. The horde doesn’t reach Jackson in the game’s opening. It only really proves to be an issue for Abby with the group of infected chasing her back to the safety of the Salt Lake crew’s temporary residence in a lodge. In the trailer for season two though, it’s clear that the horde will prove to be a major issue for Jackson. Hundreds of infected are shown throwing themselves at the town’s walls, reminding me of some of Game of Thrones’ epic White Walker scenes. In fact, there’s even a shot of Tommy using a flamethrower on a bloater within the town’s walls so the infected will seemingly breach defences.

What we haven’t seen is any footage of Tommy in Seattle. Is the TV show seeking to simplify the events of Seattle by not having him there? The infected breaching Jackson’s walls would certainly give him a reason to stay behind as the town’s ‘protector’. In fact, if the town is vulnerable, it perhaps might help a TV audience understand why Ellie and Dina are sent off to avenge Joel alone. I also think beyond that though that it’s important that Jackson isn’t displayed as a total haven as it is in the game. Certainly, its evils are lesser than those of somewhere like Seattle but I think to depict anywhere as totally impervious to threat in this world is wrong. It’s worth noting too that Tommy also has a child with Maria in this iteration of the story, and I’m imagining that’ll play into his decision to stay behind in Jackson.

Credit / HBO, SIE

These next couple of differences are perhaps more subtle but still worth pointing out. There’s a clear shot of a Firefly graveyard, with various dog tag necklaces hanging from the makeshift grave markers. Zoo animals can be seen roaming in the background so this is clearly outside of the Salt Lake hospital which means, yes, these are Joel’s victims. At first, I thought perhaps Abby might be visiting her father’s grave and while that’ll likely happen, so too am I thinking that this is where Ellie will find out the truth about what happened. In the game, I believe she finds an audio recording, but the magnitude of Joel’s actions will surely hit harder if it’s an entire graveyard she stumbles across.

Credit / HBO, SIE

There’s also an interesting shot of a screaming Dina, the pained variety of screaming. She’s wearing her Seattle garb and it looks a lot like she might be in the movie theatre - which Ellie and Dina use as their base. My thinking is that perhaps instead of pregnancy morning sickness, it’ll be an injury that’ll keep Dina out of action on ‘day two’. Whether the TV show is abandoning the pregnancy plot entirely or just delaying it remains to be seen.

There’s a brief shot of Joe Pantoliano as Eugene who’s only referenced in the game. Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have already confirmed that the character will be getting the Bill and Frank treatment, i.e. an expanded story. It remains to be seen what that actually is though. In the trailer, the character is simply shown looking at something beyond the camera. In the next shot, Joel is aiming his rifle. My initial thought was perhaps that Joel has to ‘put down’ an infected Eugene but the two shots could be entirely unrelated. It’s really not clear.

Finally, it appears as if spores are back on the menu. In the game, spores thrive in dark, damp, enclosed environments, prompting characters to wear masks to prevent them from inhaling them and becoming infected. In the first season of the TV show, that was scrapped and replaced with a sort of tendril network where touching a fungal tendril could attract the attention of infected miles away. It appears that season two will introduce airborne spores though as there’s one shot of Ellie in a spore-infested tunnel walking past an infected victim. Why airborne spores suddenly exist, I do not know. Perhaps it’s because of Seattle’s close proximity to the water? The damp depths of the city are more of a breeding ground? It’ll be interesting to find out.

Credit / HBO, SIE

All of this comes on top of the fact that we know season two will see Joel enter therapy, unpacking the emotional fallout of season one. That combined with everything above is telling me that we’re in for a rollercoaster ride, even those of us who think we know what’s coming. It also seems quite obvious that this trailer will have been very meticulously edited, so I’m imagining that the season has plenty of surprises up its sleeve in addition to those it’s already teased. We see far more of the second game’s events than I expected; I wasn't convinced we’d get as far as Ellie seeing Nora off, for example. I’m still dubious as to why the trailer features so very little Abby content but I’m wondering whether showrunners just don’t want to signal to those not in the know that this is a significant character.

Well, all will soon be revealed because as I said, the show returns on 13 April - and I’ll be here covering all of the relevant updates when that happens.