Arguably one of the best video game adaptations of all time is The Last of Us, with the post-apocalypse 'zombie' thriller sitting at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. With The Last of Us season 2 due to land on Sunday, April 13 (here's how to watch The Last of Us season 2 for more info), fans of the show who aren't as familiar with the source material have one question on their minds: is season 2 also based on a game?
The video game The Last of Us came out in 2013, and it took a whole ten years for the TV adaptation to materialize. Both the game and the story have similar premises, and fairly comparable plots: they're about a bereaved man named Joel who has to escort an immune girl called Ellie across America, and they bond on the way.
Naturally there are differences between the versions, but the story remains the same. The show also includes elements from The Last of Us: Left Behind, a paid expansion to the game.
But what about The Last of Us season 2? Well, that too is partly based on a video game. The Last of Us Part II was released in 2022 (which coincided with a renaming of the original game to Part I). It was originally only available to play on PlayStation 5, but nowadays you can also play it on computer too.
The Last of Us Part II is set four years after the original, and follows the first game's Ellie as well as a new character called Abby whose lives cross over as they both experience the violent new world.
As the TV show hasn't released yet, it's impossible to say just how faithful season 2 is to Part II. But it'll likely be pretty similar, judging by the first season.
So why did I say The Last of Us season 2 is only partly based on Part II of the games? Well that's because, while season 1 was an adaptation of an entire game, the second game is reportedly having its story spread across multiple seasons of the show. It's not quite clear just yet how many seasons Part II will be transformed into, but the showrunners have hinted that it could be as many as three.
There are only two games in The Last of Us' series so far, so a third season would only work if it either abandoned the source material, or took more time to adapt the second game. I'm sure fans will agree that the second option is better!
The second season brings back most of the (surviving) characters of the first and introduces some new ones from the sequel game, including Hollywood actor Jeffrey Wright who reprises a role he voiced in the game.
Below you can find links to buy The Last of Us Part II if you haven't played it before. These are on PlayStation but you can find it for PC on Steam here, Epic Games Store hereand Humble Bundle here.
The Last of Us season 2 streams on Max in the US and Sky TV in the UK with new episodes weekly.
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