Craig Mazin confirms The Last of Us season 2 filming start date after HBO’s boss Casey Bloys previously teased an early 2024 begin for the show.

Nearly a year after the show first premiered, The Last of Us season 2 filming start date has finally been revealed. Based on the Naughty Dog post-apocalyptic game of the same name, the show centers on Ellie and Joel, survivors of a zombie-like pandemic from the cordyceps fungi as they venture across the United States in order to find a way to use Ellie’s immunity to the virus to save humanity. Led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us season 1 was a critical hit and a major ratings hit for HBO, quickly securing a season 2 order, which saw delays due to the recently concluded SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

During a recent appearance on the A Night in the Writers Room panel moderated by Variety, Craig Mazin offered a proper confirmation of The Last of Us season 2’s filming start date. The next chapter of the show is set to begin filming on February 12, 2024, just over a year after season 1 first premiered. The showrunner’s confirmation comes just a couple of weeks after HBO CEO Casey Bloys revealed that it would begin filming in early 2024.

When Could The Last of Us Season 2 Release?

With a filming start date now set for The Last of Us season 2, the question now becomes when the next chapter of the show will premiere. If to look at season 1, the next batch of episodes could take upwards of a year to produce, with the debut season being filmed from July 2021 to June 2022, with some additional shooting taking place in October. Considering Mazin and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann have ambitious plans for season 2, including potentially splitting it up into two parts, it could very well take even longer to produce the next season.

If this does prove to be the case, the most likely release window for season 2 would be in late 2025. The show didn’t finally make its long-awaited premiere until January 2023, some six months after principal photography had wrapped, and if season 2 takes just as long to film, it seems likely that it wouldn’t wrap until at least January 2025, making an August premiere all the more likely. Additionally, with Pascal being a hot commodity right now in Hollywood, including reportedly being in talks to lead the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Fantastic Four reboot, scheduling him for additional shooting could prove troublesome and lead to an elongated production schedule.

The one thing that could see The Last of Us season 2 premiering on HBO sooner would be if editing on the show was happening in concurrence with the actual shooting. This in turn, however, would necessitate the production to film in the chronological order of the story, something unheard of in most productions, especially big-budget ones like the video game adaptation, as everything from actors’ schedules to locations and special effects can see some sequences pushed back in a production schedule. Regardless of when it might hit screens, the confirmation that The Last of Us season 2 will begin shooting within a couple months should come as an exciting update for those who loved the first season.