Last night marked the dramatic conclusion of The Last of Us Season 2, where Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finally faced off with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) in a tense encounter. However, the outcome was far from what Ellie anticipated, ending with a surge of violence that characterizes much of the HBO hit series. It’s left ambiguous whether Ellie makes it out alive by the season’s end. Could the Season 2 finale mean the conclusion of The Last of Us on HBO?

**Spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 7, now streaming on MAX**

The dramatic events in The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 7, reach a peak when Abby tracks down Ellie, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Jesse (Young Mazino), and Dina (Isabela Merced) at their theater refuge. Abby takes Tommy hostage, kills Jesse, and turns her gun on Ellie. Ellie desperately tries to explain that she never intended to kill Abby’s friends, Mel (Ariela Barer) and Owen (Spencer Lord), but Abby is enraged, accusing Ellie of squandering her second chance at life.

Abby pulls the trigger on her gun and the screen cuts to black. It’s unclear if Ellie has been shot or not.

As The Last of Us Season 2 concludes, a final twist emerges. The season wraps up with a flashback scene. We see Abby waking at the W.L.F. headquarters, where her friend Manny (Danny Ramirez) informs her that their leader Isaac (Jeffrey Wright) wants to speak with her. Abby strolls through a corridor and steps outside, revealing that the W.L.F. has transformed a large stadium into a sanctuary. Formerly an NFL venue, the area now houses gardens, and we find that Abby’s living space was once a VIP suite.

A chyron reveals that we have gone back to Seattle: Day One. The Last of Us is now going to show us Abby’s side of this sordid story.

So will there be a Last of Us Season 3? When does TLOU come back? And what will The Last of Us Season 3 be about? Here’s everything you need to know about the future of The Last of Us on HBO…

Will There Be a The Last of Us Season 3?

Yes, HBO is making The Last of Us Season 3. The news broke all the way back on April 9, 2025, which was a few days before the second season even premiered.

When Will The Last of Us Season 3 Come Out?

Full seasons of The Last of Us typically take about two years to make. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were cast as Joel and Ellie in early 2021 and The Last of Us Season 1 premiered in January 2023. The Last of Us Season 2 was announced two weeks after the show’s debut. It’s been a little over two years since then.

Logic would suggest that the earliest we’ll see The Last of Us Season 3 would be 2027. That said, earlier seasons were delayed by both COVID and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Filming on The Last of Us Season 2 started in February 2024. If production on the new season can start later this year, we might get The Last of Us Season 3 in late 2026.

What Will The Last of Us Season 3 Be About?

We already have a pretty good sense of what The Last of Us Season 3 will be about. Season 2’s final flashback to Abby’s Seattle: Day One indicates that we’ll follow her version of events over these bloody three days in Season 3.

That lines up with what creators and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have teased. Mazin told Variety this year that they always planned on splitting the events of The Last of Us II into more than one season. “It feels like we’ve got one or two more seasons,” Mazin said.

During a recent press conference, Mazin and Druckmann teased more about the third season.

“There is another side to this story that we have yet to really delve into,” Craig Mazin said during the press conference. “There’s no question that Abby is the hero of her story. Kaitlyn Dever is the hero of a story always, you know? I mean, if you have Kaitlyn Dever, you use a Kaitlyn Dever.”

The showrunners also teased that they will provide answers to several questions fans might have. “What is going on? How did that war start? How did the Seraphites start? Who is the prophet? What happened to her? What does Isaac want? What’s happening at the end of Episode 7? What is this explosion? What is all of it?” Mazin said. “And all of that will become clear.“

While Mazin and Druckmann were loathe to spill too much about their plans, they did confirm that we will be seeing Kaitlyn Dever, Bella Ramsey, and Isabela Merced return to the show.

“We haven even seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story,” Mazin said.

When moderator Mallory Rubin asked the showrunners for one final Season 3 nugget, Mazin said, “Rats! What should we talk about?”