The Last of Us Season 2 Trailer Smashes HBO Records a Month Early

The the second season of The Last of Us It hasn't even shown up yet, but its impending arrival is already causing quite a stir.

The show’s the latest trailer for Season 2 , which was released during a SXSW panel, has garnered over 158 million views across platforms in just three days, according to figures supplied by Warner Brothers Discovery The streamer asserted that this qualifies as a record for HBO and Max original content, adding that this trailer surpassed earlier promotions for the series by "a minimum of 160%."

The series appears to be gaining more traction with each passing day, as both newcomers and long-time enthusiasts eagerly anticipate the release of Season 2. Domestic audiences have been tuning in, with Season 1 episodes drawing approximately 32 million viewers across various platforms—a significant rise compared to the final episode of Season 1. In March 2023, the season concluded on all channels with an impressive tally of 8.2 million same-day viewers. Deadline . Clearly, folks are excitedly getting ready for the next leg of the story with a little rewatch, but this huge jump in numbers says a lot about just how big this series actually is. It’s definitely one of the most successful for HBO in recent years, but the anticipation and love toward the show is undeniable with numbers like these.

Season 2 of The Last of Us will advance the timeline by five years and delve into Joel and Ellie’s journey as they face conflicts between themselves and an environment far riskier and less predictable compared to what they previously encountered. Actors Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, and Rutina Wesley are scheduled to come back, joined by notable figures such as Kaitlyn Dever Isabella Mercad, Catherine O'Hara, and Jeffrey Wright have joined the cast for this upcoming season along with them.

During the SXSW panel, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, the showrunners, confirmed " spores are back After being excluded from Season 1, the trailer hinted at the inclusion of spores. In this scene, we see Ellie, portrayed by Bella Ramsey, observing an infected individual whose exhalation triggers the release of these spores.

Druckmann said there is "an escalation of numbers and types of infected, but also, as you see in the trailer, an escalation of the vector of how this thing spreads" in The Last of Us Season 2, adding: "Season 1, we had this new thing that wasn’t in the game of these tendrils that spread, and that was one form. And then one shot you see in this trailer, there are things in the air."

Mazin subsequently verified that "the spores have returned," then Druckmann elaborated: "We decided to do this because we truly aimed to understand how to incorporate them properly, as always, every decision must serve the drama. We needed a compelling rationale for bringing them back at this point, and indeed there was one."

The second season of The Last of Us will debut on April 13, 2025, airing on both HBO and HBO Max.

Lex Briscuso is a film and TV critic as well as a freelance entertainment writer. She contributes content for various platforms. Follow her on Twitter using the handle @nikonamerica.

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