Post-apocalyptic 'The Last of Us' more timely than ever, say stars

by Andrew MARSZAL

When "The Last of Us" -- the smash hit series about a post-apocalyptic society ravaged by a mass fungal infection -- arrived on our screens in 2023, the real world was emerging from a pandemic.

Its timely premise evidently struck a chord, as the video game adaptation's debut season drew a record-breaking 32 million US viewers per episode, according to HBO.

Now season two, which premieres April 13 and hinges on themes of conflict and vengeance, will be equally relevant and prescient, promises returning star Pedro Pascal.

Part of the show's strength is its ability "to see human relationships under crisis and in pain, and intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory, and base it off the world we're living in," said the actor, who plays lead character Joel.

"Storytelling is cathartic in so many ways... I think there's a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that kind of catharsis -- in a safe space," he told a recent press conference.

In the first season, smuggler Joel is forced to take teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsey) -- seemingly the one human immune to the deadly cordyceps fungus -- with him as he crosses the United States seeking his brother.

- 'Conflicts' -

Although fans of the original video games will know what to expect from season two, HBO is trying to keep plot details of the dark and gritty second installment under wraps.

A recent trailer makes clear that Joel and Ellie have come into conflict with each other, and a new character Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) is a soldier on a murderous rampage.

In a quirk of fortune, rising star Dever ("Booksmart," "Dopesick") was originally in talks to play Ellie when a film adaptation of "The Last of Us" was in development in the mid-2010s.

Though the film collapsed, she became a fan of the games, and said getting cast as Abby -- a main, playable character in video game "The Last of Us Part II" -- for the TV series years later was "surreal."

"I was a fan of the game. It was a real bonding moment for me and my dad playing it together," she reflected.

"And to have it come back around, what, 10-plus years later?... It just felt right. Abby felt right."

Gabriel Luna, who returns as Joel's brother Tommy, agreed with Pascal that "there's a huge catharsis element" to watching the second season at a time when, in the real world, conflicts are raging and alliances are fracturing.

"The first season, we made a story about a pandemic, fearing that maybe there was a fatigue. But I think the experience that everyone had just gave them an entry point to what we were doing," he said.

He continued: "I think the second game... and the second season is about conflicts. Where do they start? And who started it?

"Right now, all over the world, we're dealing with these conflicts... People are stuck in the wheel of vengeance. Can it be broken? Will it be broken? And that's where we are."

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© Agence France-Presse