There's a deadly fungus among us! Alexis Hejna from Honeysuckle Rose Creations hosts a roundtable look the second season of the hit TV series based off the hit video game (and its sequel), joined by Jesse Starcher and Jayson Teasely. Let's take a look at this story of vengeance, love, and mushrooms. 

The second season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of Us was originally broadcast on HBO between April and May 2025. Based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog, the season is set twenty-five years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and collapses society. The second season, based on the first half of the 2020 game The Last of Us Part II, follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) five years after the events of the first season, after they have settled into Jackson, Wyoming, with Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Ellie's friends Dina (Isabela Merced) and Jesse (Young Mazino).

HBO renewed The Last of Us for a second season less than two weeks after the series premiered in January 2023. Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann were joined in the writers' room by Halley Gross and Bo Shim; Druckmann wrote and co-directed the games, and Gross co-wrote Part II. Principal photography took place in British Columbia from February to August 2024. Druckmann, Mazin, and Peter Hoar returned to direct the seven episodes alongside newcomers Kate Herron, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Mark Mylod, and Stephen Williams. Gustavo Santaolalla and David Fleming returned to compose the score.

Critics felt the season reinforced The Last of Us as the best video game adaptation, praising the action sequences, direction, performances, production design, and writing, though some criticized the pacing and considered the story incomplete. It was nominated for several awards. Across linear channels and Max, the season premiere was watched by 5.3 million viewers on the first day, a 13% increase from the first-season premiere; by May, the series averaged almost 37 million global viewers per episode.

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