Last April, just days before season 2 of the HBO series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us started airing, HBO officially announced that the show has been renewed for a third season. Now, The Last of Us season 3 is gearing up for production – but last month, we heard that it had lost a cast member, as Danny Ramirez, who played the character Manny in the second season of the show, had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Deadline reports that the vacancy has been filled, with Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: No Way Home) signing on to play Manny in the new season.
Clea DuVall (Poker Face) has also joined the cast and will be playing a seraphite. The Seraphites, or Scars, are “a primitivist religious cult” that was introduced in the second season. Manny is “a loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.” He’s a former member of the Fireflies who, the second season, assists Abby (Kaityln Dever) with seeking revenge on Joel (Pedro Pascal) for the massacre he committed at the Firefly hospital while rescuing Ellie (Bella Ramsay) in the first season.
Set-Up
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for. Here’s the season 2 logline: Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.
Behind the Scenes
Craig Mazin is the sole showrunner of The Last of Us season 3. Neil Druckmann, who co-created the Naughty Dog video games the series is inspired by, was also a creator, executive producer, writer, and director on the show for the first two seasons, but he is stepping away from his creative involvement so he can focus on his video game work.
2027
Last year, HBO and HBO Max content chairman/CEO Casey Bloys said we shouldn’t expect to see the new episodes until 2027. He also wasn’t certain if The Last of Us season 3 will be the end of the show or not. He told Variety, “The series is definitely planned for 2027. Craig is still working it out whether it will be two more seasons or one more long season. It hasn’t been decided yet, and I’m following Craig’s lead on that.“
Are you looking forward to watching The Last of Us season 3 next year? What do you think of Jorge Lendeborg Jr. and Clea DuVall joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
