The Last of Us trailer gives our best look yet at season two, so let’s break it down

Today is The Last of Us day, and in honour of the occasion Naughty Dog and HBO Max have released another trailer for the second season of their acclaimed TV adaptation.

As with our brief teaser from August, today’s trailer once again starts with Catherine O’Hara’s still to be named character chatting with Pedro Pascal’s Joel, before cutting to scenes of his life in Jackson with Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey), and more from cast members including Isabela Merced’s Dina, Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby and Young Mazino’s Jesse.

I won’t lie, the trailer is great, and I can’t wait to see more when the second season makes its debut next year. You can check it out for yourself below. Oh, and – the music!

Now, those who read the site often will know that I Love The Last of Us, so as is tradition, I am going to do a spot of trailer analysis/ side by side shots from the show and the game below the YouTube video embed. Therefore, please be aware of The Last of Us spoilers below.

Kicking off the side by side shots, here are Joel and Ellie during one of their guitar sessions. As you can see, the guitar in the show is more or less an exact copy of the guitar in the game.

Meanwhile, when Ellie is playing the guitar in the show’s trailer, you can see she has a bandage over her scarred arm. Again, this is much like in the game (only in the show her top is covering more of her arm).

Next, the trailer shows us two people on the backs of horses, riding through the snow. The characters are a little far away to get a really good look at them, but I am going to make an educated guess and say this is Ellie and Dina on their patrol around Jackson.

Speaking of Ellie and Dina, there is no doubt that it is these two in the next couple of shots.

I am so ruddy delighted that it looks like HBO is including the moment Ellie sings Take on Me to Dina. This is a short and sweet moment between the two in an otherwise rather grim situation, and I loved its inclusion in The Last of Us Part 2 so much.

Another look at Abby, now. The showrunners seem to be keeping Abby (and the WLF, for that matter) to a minimum so far. Here, she is seen looking upset by a cross, evidently the grave of her father.

I am undecided if this shot is meant to be soon after her father’s death, or closer to the main events of The Last of Us Part 2. This is purely because of the way her hair has been styled here, in a pulled back and slightly longer plait, but I am currently leaning towards it being a flashback because of the clothing. Also, Abby still did have a plait in the flashbacks, I just thought the show’s shot looked longer. Maybe I am overthinking things now. Any thoughts?

Remember how the showrunners promised us “a lot more infected” in season two, with season one’s infected numbers being quite conservative? Well, it sure looks like they are living up to the word given this next shot.

A lot more infected confirmed!

We also see Abby getting overwhelmed by infected in the following shot – something we have glimpsed before. However, we now see that she is saved from the horde by Joel and Tommy, with the three riding off through the snowy countryside, as they do in the game.

This next chap that we see is a member of the Seraphites, or Scars. The Seraphites are a cult introduced in The Last of Us Part 2, and are in conflict with the WLF. The show’s Scars and the game’s are remarkably similar, as you can see below.

Speaking of the Seraphites, this bloody “Feel her love” image below is basically a carbon copy of the game. This is a dedication to The Seraphite Prophet, the female founder of the cult who is executed by the WLF.

Keeping with the Seraphites, this next scene shows us a captured cult member clearly being held hostage by the WLF, which is headed up by actor Jeffrey Wright reprising his role as Isaac.

Again, this is a very similar moment to one we see in the game. During this scene in The Last of Us Part 2, Isaac tells another member of the WLF to make sure the Seraphite prisoner does not fall asleep.

Can we please take a moment to appreciate the lighting in this next image. Given the reddy/pink hue, I am going to say this moment showing Ellie and Dina getting swarmed in a subway represents The Last of Us Part 2’s ‘Tunnels’ section, where the two make their way through train cars while fighting off enemies.

The lighting is incredibly similar.

To close, here are just two screengrabs from the trailer that I liked. While in the first one, Tommy and Maria are clearly not in the best of situations (I am going to guess given the blood on Tommy’s head and the clothing he is wearing, he has just been fending off infected that swarmed Jackson), I love the closeness.

Same with the second shot, which is Ellie and Joel playing guitar together. This season is going to break my heart all over again, I know it.

So, what did you think? The second season of The Last of Us is due to air in 2025.