HBOs The Last of Us season 2 is here, picking up five years after season 1.
It finds Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel estranged due to events that unfolded during the season finale. The first episode encompasses all the traits that made the show a worldwide phenomenon, with lots of new plots etching up the suspense. There’s a new love interest, an evolution in the undead, an outside threat from other humans with a vendetta and a mysterious unseen growth that may or may not be related to the undead.
Wearing denim long-shorts and a pink T-shirt, Ramsey, who identifies as non-binary and recently shared they have level 1 autism, admitted the public’s anticipation for the sophomore season “is a bit scary”.
"When season 1 launched, the show became this huge thing. I’m so aware of everybody looking at it and me. It’s quite scary but exciting.”
The 21-year-old constantly reached out to Pascal throughout the press conference in Los Angeles, holding hands with the actor for emotional support.
“I’m trying to see it as a celebration of all the hard work we did. I hope people will like it. A lot has changed. Ellie is 19. In any teenager's life, that’s the formative years and definitely informs the season. There are obviously deeper reasons for their rift. I didn’t enjoy feeling estranged from Pedro within a scene. It wasn’t a nice feeling.”
Pedro, whose Mandalorian stint propelled him to household-name status, agrees: “It was a beautiful setup by Craig and Neil that the first thing we shot was Bella and I in an intimate setting. There’s an incredibly painful distance between them.
“But beyond the filming, we — outside of the characters — got to laugh and that was comforting. That was like coming home. I was grateful to be back and yet at the same time it’s this experience, more than any other I’ve had, where it’s hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel in a way that isn’t very healthy. I feel their pain.”
One new addition to the cast is Isabela Merced, who made her presence felt immediately in the show and in the press conference, sitting in minute black shorts and a bra top covered with a loose diamanté string spiderweb top, her black-stockinged leg swinging back and forth while she spoke, the silver stilettos catching the spotlight.
“I felt like the new kid at school,” laughed the diminutive actress, who made a name for herself on Dora the Explorer and Transformers.
“Dina and I have a lot in common. I have random confidence for no reason. It was a good environment to flourish as an actor. I think that’s why my mom will be proud of me.
“If I were in an apocalyptic situation, I would try to lighten it up a bit. I think that’s our superpower as humans. We have the power to shift our perspective and make our own reality. Dina is Ellie’s compass and light, in a way. I think Dina's also grieving and we explore that,” she gasps, covering her mouth with her hands and groaning. “Spoilers!”
More groaning before shaking off her faux pas as though nothing happened.
“I think it’s going to be fun to get to know Dina. The character is more than only the comic relief.”
Will there be another Bill and Frank episode? The intimate episode that showed great character work of a same-sex couple and was a surprise in a world of the undead turned out to be a fan favourite.
Co-creators/writers/executive producers/directors Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin contemplated the expectation.
“We didn’t set out to replicate the episode. The Last of Us season 2 has to happen as it happens. There is a gorgeous episode this season directed by Neil that is different. It’s not Bill and Frank, but in its own way it is its own thing because it needed to be. There’s a lot of those moments throughout the season. Every episode has those moments interweaved. The later-episode stuff, particularly the last two, were my favourite.”
Pascal adjusts horn-rimmed glasses and leans in.
“It’s very much going to reflect the human experience under extreme circumstances. I think there’s a healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in the catharsis. It’s a safe space to see human relationships under crisis and in pain and to intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory and [analogies] based off the world we’re living in, very beautifully and very intelligently.”
“Storytelling is cathartic,” agrees Gabriel Luna, who portrays Pascal’s brother, Tommy.
The two actors collaborated early in the prep to created a shared, specific accent that paid tribute to their “youth” and lends itself to the authenticity of the show.
“In season 1 we made a story about a pandemic, fearing maybe there was a fatigue, but I think the experience everyone had gave them an entry point to what we were doing.
“I think the second game [the series is based on a successful video game], in the way Craig and Neil — I’m assuming — wrote this, the second season is about conflicts. Where do they start? Who started it? 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? That’s where we are, so catharsis is a big element.”
Luna continues: “We are also growing the community: who we let in, how we protect those we love, how we guide those we care for, the children we’re rearing — trying to send them in the right direction. What elements of danger are we allowing them to encounter so they can develop their skills?
“As Uncle Tommy to Ellie, I see her capabilities as a warrior. While Joel would very much like to keep her as close to him — and as protected — as possible, as the uncle I’m allowed to have a longer leash — that can be snapped at any moment because Ellie’s a very convincing person.”
Young Mazino and Kaitlyn Dever join the central cast for the seventh episode of season 2, which drops on April 13.
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