HBO’s fungal-zombie drama is heading into its third season with a full cast overhaul, a structural pivot, and one genuine loss behind the scenes, all of which point toward the show’s biggest departure yet from its Season 1 formula.
The driving force behind all the new faces is a shift in perspective. Season 3 will pivot toward Abby’s side of the story, mirroring the structure of The Last of Us Part II video game. And that means introducing an entirely new cast of allies and enemies from Abby’s world, largely unfamiliar to viewers who’ve only known Joel and Ellie’s side of the conflict.
Jason Ritter and Patrick Wilson have joined in recurring roles, with Ritter playing Hanley, a soldier in the WLF militia, and Wilson playing Jerry, Abby’s father. Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, and Spencer Lord, all of whom recurred in Season 2, have been promoted to series regulars for the new season. Michelle Mao and Kyriana Kratter have also joined, playing Yara and Lev — with Kratter’s Lev, a 13-year-old transgender boy who becomes Abby’s partner and moral center in the games, expected to carry real weight in the season’s back half. Li Jun Li rounds out the additions, joining an ensemble that also includes Clea DuVall as a seraphite and Jorge Lendeborg Jr., who’s stepping into the role of Manny after original castmate Danny Ramirez exited due to a scheduling conflict.
Behind the scenes, the season is dealing with a genuine loss. Catherine O’Hara, who was set to reprise her role as Gail, passed away in January 2026. How the show handles her absence (recast, written out, or reworked entirely) hasn’t been addressed publicly, and it’s worth watching for whenever HBO does start rolling out first-look material.
There’s also been a change at the top. Craig Mazin is now the sole showrunner for Season 3, following Naughty Dog chief and TV series co-creator and EP Neil Druckmann’s departure from the role, though some reporting suggests Druckmann is staying involved in an advisory capacity rather than exiting the project outright.
Put together, it’s a season defined less by who’s coming back and more by who’s showing up for the first time. It’s a deliberate, games-faithful gamble that trades the comfort of Joel and Ellie’s dynamic for a messier, more divisive story about the people on the other side of Ellie’s fight.
Meanwhile, on the games side, there isn’t much hard news to hang a headline on this summer. The most concrete involves an unofficial multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part II, built by fans and unaffiliated with Naughty Dog, is currently slated to launch in September 2026 on PC, filling a gap left by Naughty Dog’s 2023 decision to scrap its own live-service multiplayer project.
On the Part III front, there’s essentially nothing official, and what circulates is speculative at best. Naughty Dog’s attention right now is squarely on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, its new original IP revealed at The Game Awards in 2024, which has yet to show gameplay nearly two years later. That silence has even fed rumors questioning whether Neil Druckmann might eventually step away from Naughty Dog. A third Last of Us game, if it happens at all, likely wouldn’t arrive until deep into the PS6 generation. Druckmann himself hasn’t ruled it out, but has said only that it would need a story and gameplay hook worthy of the series. Many fans would warmly welcome an obvious and ripe for stroytelling prequel featuring Joel and Tommy’s early years as smugglers and survivalists, including Tommy’s eventual association with the Fireflies. But that’s just wishful thinking on our part at this nebulous stage.
