Series guide
- Thriller
- Drama
- Post-apocalyptic
- Creators
- Craig Mazin · Neil Druckmann
- Stars
- Pedro Pascal · Bella Ramsey · Gabriel Luna
Images: HBO Max / TVmaze
Where to watch The Last of Us
The Last of Us streams on HBO Max in the US, included with a subscription. Both seasons are there – 16 episodes, nine in season 1 and seven in season 2, a little over 14 hours in total. A third season is filming now for 2027.
Streaming options in the United States, updated Sep 15, 2026. More from hbomax.com. Service logos are trademarks of their owners.
- Episodes aired
- 16 of 16
Seasons 2
The Last of Us episodes 16
Season 1 · 9 episodes · 9 aired · Jan 15, 2023 to Mar 12, 2023
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S1.E1 ·
When You're Lost in the Darkness
A fungal plague tears the world apart in 2003, and two decades on a hardened Boston smuggler takes a job moving a teenage girl past the checkpoints for a promised truck.
Directed by Craig Mazin · Written by Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
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S1.E2 ·
Infected
With the direct route to the rebels' rendezvous choked by the infected, Joel, Tess and Ellie pick a quieter path through ruined downtown Boston and the things nesting inside it.
Directed by Neil Druckmann · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E3 ·
Long, Long Time
Hoping to hand Ellie and the job to an old contact, Joel detours to a fortified little town in Lincoln, whose survivalist owner has spent the years building a life behind his fences.
Directed by Peter Hoar · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E4 ·
Please Hold to My Hand
A blocked highway forces Joel and Ellie into Kansas City, where an armed group rules the streets and its leader is already hunting a man she wants badly.
Directed by Jeremy Webb · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E5 ·
Endure and Survive
The pair strike an uneasy deal with two brothers who know a way out of the city, and the four try to slip past the militia searching every block for them.
Directed by Jeremy Webb · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E6 ·
Kin
Joel and Ellie finally reach Tommy's settlement in Jackson, where Joel has to decide whether he is still the right person to see Ellie the rest of the way west.
Directed by Jasmila Žbanić · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E7 ·
Left Behind
With Joel badly hurt and no help nearby, Ellie has to keep him alive, while she remembers a night in a shuttered mall with her closest friend from FEDRA school.
Directed by Liza Johnson · Written by Neil Druckmann
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S1.E8 ·
When We Are in Need
Out of supplies and out of options, Ellie goes hunting in the snow and falls in with a preacher who leads a hungry group and keeps his own reasons close.
Directed by Ali Abbasi · Written by Craig Mazin
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S1.E9 ·
Look for the Light
The road ends in Salt Lake City, where the Fireflies' hospital holds whatever the doctors can make of Ellie's immunity, and Joel would rather she never walked through the door.
Directed by Ali Abbasi · Written by Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Season 2 · 7 episodes · 7 aired · Apr 13, 2025 to May 25, 2025
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S2.E1 ·
Future Days
Five years into life in Jackson, Joel and Ellie barely speak, a smarter breed of infected turns up on patrol, and strangers with a grudge are riding toward the valley.
Directed by Craig Mazin · Written by Craig Mazin
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S2.E2 ·
Through the Valley
Abby's group argues over whether to go through with their plan while a routine winter patrol rides out of Jackson, and something buried under the snowfields wakes up.
Directed by Mark Mylod · Written by Craig Mazin
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S2.E3 ·
The Path
Months later Ellie learns the faction responsible is holed up in Seattle, and when Jackson's council refuses to act she starts packing to go there on her own.
Directed by Peter Hoar · Written by Craig Mazin
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S2.E4 ·
Day One
Ellie and Dina reach a Seattle caught between an armed militia and a religious sect, and a name on a radio channel gives them their first real lead.
Directed by Kate Herron · Written by Craig Mazin
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S2.E5 ·
Feel Her Love
The pair push across the city toward Lakehill hospital, dodging militia sweeps and the sect's hunting parties, with Ellie increasingly unsure Dina should be beside her.
Directed by Stephen Williams · Written by Craig Mazin
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S2.E6 ·
The Price
Four birthdays in Jackson trace how close Joel and Ellie once were, how a patrol with Gail's husband strained it, and what Ellie finally demanded of Joel.
Directed by Neil Druckmann · Written by Neil Druckmann & Halley Gross & Craig Mazin
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S2.E7 ·
Convergence
Shaken by how far she went for her lead, Ellie rejoins the others at the theater and sets out for a flooded aquarium while the sect tightens its grip on the city.
Directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado · Written by Neil Druckmann & Halley Gross & Craig Mazin
Videos 2
Two seasons that work completely differently, and why that matters now
Season 1 is a finished story. Season 2 is the first half of one. The nine episodes that ran from January 15 to March 12, 2023 adapt the whole of the first game and end where it ends. The seven that ran from April 13 to May 25, 2025 take on a much longer second game and stop partway through it – which is why season 2 is two episodes shorter and feels like a door left open rather than a book closed.
That changes what the list above is for. Season 1’s episodes are close to standalone: episode 3 in particular leaves the main pair almost entirely and tells someone else’s story for an hour, and it is the episode people who bounced off the premise tend to come back for. Season 2 is serialised much harder, and the gaps between its episodes carry more weight than anything in season 1. At 43 to 81 minutes an episode, sixteen episodes is a little over fourteen hours, and the two halves are genuinely a different watch.
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann created it for HBO with Naughty Dog, Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions, and one thing is worth knowing before you start season 2 rather than after it: Druckmann and Halley Gross stepped away from the show in July 2025, leaving Mazin as sole showrunner. The man who wrote both games will not be writing the season that finishes the second one. Season 3 was renewed on April 9, 2025 anyway, began filming in British Columbia on March 2, 2026 under the working title Calm Current, and is aimed at 2027 – we looked at what it is taking on in our piece on HBO’s biggest gamble yet. For the wider context, our round-up of upcoming game adaptations shows how much of the current schedule this show’s success bought.
The Last of Us cast 16
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Pedro PascalJoel -
Bella RamseyEllie -
Gabriel LunaTommy -
Merle DandridgeMarlene -
Nico ParkerSarah -
Murray BartlettFrank -
Jeffrey PiercePerry -
Anna TorvTess -
Nick OffermanBill -
Storm ReidRiley -
Isabela MercedDina -
Young MazinoJesse
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Kaitlyn DeverAbby
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Spencer LordOwen
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Tati GabrielleNora
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Ariela BarerMel
- Creator
- Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
- Music
- Gustavo Santaolalla, David Fleming
- Studios
- Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, The Mighty Mint, Word Games
Photos via Wikimedia Commons. Pedro Pascal: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0; Bella Ramsey: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0; Gabriel Luna: Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0; Merle Dandridge: wbls1075nyc, CC BY 3.0; Nico Parker: Jonatan Blomberg, CC BY-SA 4.0; Murray Bartlett: Greg Hernandez from California, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0; Jeffrey Pierce: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0; Anna Torv: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0; Nick Offerman: UMBC Student Events Board, CC BY 2.0; Storm Reid: Sister Circle TV, CC BY 3.0; Isabela Merced: NOCD, CC BY 3.0.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I watch The Last of Us?
The Last of Us streams on HBO Max in the US with a subscription. Both seasons are there; it is an HBO original, so it is not licensed to another service.
How many episodes of The Last of Us are there?
Sixteen so far: nine in season 1 and seven in season 2. At 43 to 81 minutes each, that is a little over 14 hours.
When did The Last of Us premiere?
January 15, 2023. Season 2 ran from April 13 to May 25, 2025.
Is there going to be a season 3 of The Last of Us?
Yes. HBO renewed the series for a third season on April 9, 2025, before season 2 had even premiered. Filming began in March 2026; no release date has been announced.
Do I need to have played the games?
No. Season 1 tells the whole of the first game’s story and season 2 starts the second game’s; the show explains its own world from the first hour.
