In 2025, The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin claimed that there was “no way to finish the story in season three” and that the “most likely outcome” would be for the show to finish in season four.
However, when Deadline asked HBO boss Casey Bloy about rumors of The Last of Us ending next season and tying the knot on the story of Part 2, Bloy said, “It sure looks like it.”
“But we'll defer to the showrunners for those kinds of decisions,” he continued. “Then you can ask them.
So a Season 4 hasn't been completely ruled out just yet, but with Bloy commenting that it “looks like it,” it certainly seems likely that one of the most acclaimed video game adaptations is coming to an end soon.
While Season 2 was still successful, it dropped in ratings after Joel's death in the second episode, with the fourth and fifth episodes having smaller audiences than any of Season 1. Of course, second seasons usually show a decline, but this is unusual for a prestigious HBO adaptation.
Season 2 was also mired in great controversy, and while critics enjoyed Mazin's adaptation of the second game, audiences were more divided.
Is a fourth season a good idea?
Then there's the matter of the source material; Season 1 adapts the first game, while Season 2 only tells part of the sequel, as it is split into multiple seasons despite complaints of problems with the pacing of the game itself. By dragging out The Last of Us Part 2 even further with a fourth season, you risk exacerbating that declining interest.
Former TheGamer features editor Tessa Kaur argued that Season 2 had already run into issues with padding, and that the show's further exploration of Jackson “doesn't really add anything to the complex themes”, and that with years between seasons, as has unfortunately become the norm on television, breaking Season 2 into pieces is a risky gamble that will likely just burn out the audience.
Still, if Bloy is to be believed, then it's ultimately up to the showrunner, i.e. Craig Mazin, who said last year that he hoped to “earn enough for us to come back and finish it with a fourth.” Although Bloy also said in 2025 that “Craig is still working out whether it's going to be two more seasons or one more long season” and that it hasn't been decided yet.
- Release date
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January 15, 2023
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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Craig Mazin
- directors
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Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
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Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Halley Wegryn Gross
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Bella Ramsey
Ellie Williams
