The Last of Us Season 2 Should Tell Ellie And Abby’s Stories Chronologically

HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 is set to release on April 13, 2025. Season 1 was critically acclaimed and, for the most part, positively received by fans of the game. That said, one could argue that HBO has the original game’s incredible story to thank for that. The Last of Us: Part 1 was released in 2013, and most fans of narrative action-adventure games regard it as one of, if not the best, story-based games of all time. Fans were instantly attached to Joel and Ellie and their journey across America to find a cure for the Cordyceps virus.

However, the release of The Last of Us: Part 2 in 2022 was much more polarizing. Killing off the protagonist of the first game and introducing his killer, Abby, as one of the main playable characters in the second game was a bold move on Naughty Dog’s part. This was met with a lot of anger and frustration from many fans, who rejected this decision and swore the game off. This means that HBO has a difficult task ahead of them this coming April.

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The Last of Us Season 2 Needs To Tell Abby’s Story In The Right Order

The Last of Us Season 2 faces a major challenge in adapting key moments from the game, particularly in how it portrays new characters.

Part 2’s Story Will Be Told Across Multiple Seasons

A lot of the hate towards Part 2 was quite extreme. However, a common complaint among players (even those that welcomed the changes) was the pacing of the game. The Last of Us: Part 2 starts in Jackson, telling Ellie and Abby’s stories simultaneously. The game then makes the jump to Seattle, where the player goes through Ellie’s three days in the city, before playing through the same three days as Abby straight afterward. This was a jarring experience for players, who experienced the climax of Ellie’s bloodthirsty revenge quest, only to jump to Abby and her fellow WLF members going about their daily patrol duties.

However, the recent trailers for Season 2 imply that the show will tell Ellie and Abby’s Seattle stories chronologically side by side. This could solve the pacing issue the game had by having rising tension across both stories, giving audiences a more digestible linear narrative.

The show’s creator, Craig Mazin, recently teased that, due to the length of The Last of Us: Part 2 (roughly 25–30 hours of gameplay), it would need to be told across 3–4 different TV seasons. It’s a good sign that HBO isn’t trying to rush through the narrative. This further demonstrates the respect they have for the source material, which was established in season 1.

If the plan to tell Part 2 across multiple seasons is true, then fans can almost be certain that Ellie and Abby’s stories will be told side by side. The trailer seems to only reveal scenes from the Jackson introduction and Ellie and Abby’s Seattle day 1 and 2. This means that the TV show doesn’t intend to tell all of Ellie’s story in one go and then jump back to Abby’s. Otherwise, presumably none of Abby’s Seattle scenes would feature in the trailer, which is far from the case.

The latest scene chronologically from the game that appears in the trailer was the chilling scene where Ellie tortures and presumably kills Nora (Abby’s friend and fellow WLF member), in an attempt to force her to give up Abby’s location. In the game’s timeline, this scene comes right at the end of Ellie’s day 2. There is still a lot of narrative content to get through after this: namely, both characters’ day 3 and the Santa Barbara finale section. So, if HBO is planning to take their time, it would make sense that fans can expect at least one more season to come after the upcoming release this April.

Will The Story Of Part 2 Work Better In Television?

There is an argument that The Last of Us: Part 2 would work better in the television format. Actress and screenwriter Halley Gross co-wrote Part 2 with Neil Druckmann. Gross was not involved with the first game, and this was her first time writing for the video game medium. She previously wrote for television, most notably Westworld, which also strayed away from using the typical linear narrative format. Westworld was one of HBO’s most watched shows at the time, but viewers sometimes found it confusing due to its time jumps and complex story lines. It’s possible that Gross’ writing style will be a better fit for the television format, and it will be interesting to see how fans respond to the change of medium.

How Will Fans’ Perceptions of Ellie and Abby Change?

The possible change in the way the story unfolds might also change how people react to certain characters and scenes. In particular, it’s likely viewers will have a different response to Abby. In the game, Abby is first framed as the villain. She and her friends brutally kill Joel in the opening of the game, and while the game implies that her violence was justified, fans don’t learn her motivation until much later.

This was intentional on Naughty Dog’s behalf. The player plays as Ellie for the first half of the game, slaying countless WLF members in her hunt for Abby. It’s graphic and violent, and takes a heavy emotional toll on a character fans first met when she was a strong-minded, foul-mouthed teenager. The player is actively committing these terrible deeds, and Naughty Dog needed to do something big to motivate the player to keep going, which is why killing off Joel made sense in the context of the narrative.

With the two narratives being told side by side, it is possible that viewers of the new season could learn of Abby’s motivations sooner, perhaps even during Ellie’s violent revenge quest. Not only will this make viewers more understanding of Abby’s choices, but it could even cause Ellie to fall out of the audience’s favor. The game didn’t shy from asking whether Ellie was the true villain of this story, but that was much harder for fans of the game to accept. Not only had those fans been playing as Ellie for the majority of Part 2, but there was also a 7-year gap between the release of the two Last of Us games. During that time gap, fans grew even more attached to Ellie with each replay of the first game.

While many viewers of HBO’s season 1 release of The Last of Us were fans of the game, a large number had also never played the video game and came in completely fresh, experiencing the story of The Last of Us as a viewer rather than an active participant in the narrative. This section of viewers would have grown attached to Bella Ramsey’s Ellie through the telling of season 1, but this connection was likely not as strong as it was for players of the game. Therefore, they might be less forgiving of Ellie’s violent actions she is certain to commit in the upcoming season.

Whatever direction HBO plans to take in Season 2 of The Last of Us, it is likely that it will be perceived very differently to the game. Whether that will be for better or worse is too soon to determine.

The Last Of Us

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO Max

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

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  Bella Ramsey

  Ellie Williams

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