HBO’s Last Of Us Season 2 Trailer Introduces Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby

The second season of HBO’s hit series “The Last of Us” — based on the beloved video game of the same name created by Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog — won’t start airing until 2025, but fans finally got a longer look at the sophomore outing.

Before this trailer, audiences only got a tiny glimpse of season 2 of “The Last of Us” in a sizzle reel for Max that arrived back in August and showed off footage from other 2025 shows, including season 3 of “The White Lotus” and the new “Game of Thrones” spinoff “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” That little tease prominently featured Catherine O’Hara’s new character — and we don’t know what her deal is quite yet — and based on the brief dialogue between her character and Joel (Pedro Pascal), fans concluded that the story will pick up shortly after the events of the season 1 finale of “The Last of Us.” (As a reminder: Joel made the difficult decision to save Bella Ramsay’s Ellie despite knowing that if he sacrificed her, scientists could use her immunity to the Cordyceps infection to potentially cure thousands of people … and he kills doctors, nurses, and members of the Firefly resistance group in the process.)

Now, we finally have a better glimpse of things to come in season 2 of “The Last of Us.” So, what can fans expect when it premieres on HBO next year?

Druckmann and Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us Part II,” which will serve as the primary source material for the “Last of Us” TV show in its second season, is notoriously bleaker and grimmer than the first game in the series, and that’s very much the vibe in this trailer as well. While the teaser shows Joel and Ellie living in relative harmony at the start of the season, there’s a storm brewing on the horizon … and we’re not just talking about the hordes of infected that we glimpse later in this preview. We also get our first look here at the wonderful Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart,” “No One Will Save You”) as Abigail “Abby” Anderson, who’s a dual protagonist in “The Last of Us Part II” and a character so controversial among toxic fans of the original games that Dever had to have extra security on set during production on season 2. There are also a handful of shots here that suggest Ellie is already beginning to suspect the truth about what Joel did back at the hospital in Salt Lake City when the second season gets underway (though, to be fair, she’s never exactly not been suspicious about what actually happened).

It’s not all doom and gloom, admittedly; the trailer also shows Ellie using her newly-acquired guitar playing skills to woo Dina (Isabela Merced), her girlfriend in “The Last of Us Part II” and another major player in its story. Be that as it may, between the infected, the introduction of the Seraphites (a faction whose brutal tactics are glimpsed in this teaser), the always-welcome Jeffrey Wright reprising his role from “The Last of Us Part II” as the antagonistic Isaac Dixon (who also pops up in the trailer), and O’Hara’s character trying to pressure Joel into confessing his sins, “The Last of Us” season 2 is shaping up to be a real feel-bad time. Who else can’t wait?

“The Last of Us” season 2 will premiere on HBO and begin streaming on Max in 2025.