HBO’s the Last of Us Is Officially Ending With Season 3

Published Sep 16, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT The show will conclude in 2027 Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO Sign in to your Polygon.com account It's the end of the road for The Last of Us at HBO. While the upcoming third season was already set to conclude the show's adaptation of the second game in Naughty Dog's acclaimed series, there was some hope it could continue on after. Those hopes have now been squashed by HBO's boss. Talking to Deadline following a successful night at the Emmys for the company, Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, shared several updates on upcoming projects. That included The Last of Us, with Bloys saying that, "Craig [Mazin] has planned it as the final season." Mazin is the co-creator and showrunner of the series. After adapting the first game in the first season of the show, HBO split Part 2 across two seasons to reflect the game's dual protagonists. Season 2 tells the story of Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) quest for revenge following the death of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and her hunt for Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Season 3 will flip the perspective, retelling the same period of time as season 2 from Abby's point of view. This will also introduce the character of Lev, played by Michelle Mao. Is Naughty Dog involved with The Last of Us season 3? Image: Summer Game Fest Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the game series, co-created the HBO show alongside Mazin. Druckmann served as a showrunner and writer for the first two seasons but stepped away from work on season 3. Recently he has continued to distance himself and Naughty Dog from the show, especially after the response to the second season was less than stellar. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, he affirmed that Naughty Dog had no creative role in the final season before teasing that he still has plans for the future of the franchise. As for when season 3 of the show will actually be released, Bloys reiterated that it is scheduled for 2027. He didn't give further details on a specific date or window beyond that. Don't worry though, as Sony is currently working on a God of War series for Prime Video starring Dave Bautista. The hunger for more game adaptations will be sated.