Two familiar faces are about to be plunged into the apocalypse of HBO’s The Last of Us. On Monday, a report from Deadline revealed that Jason Ritter (Matlock, Lanterns) and Patrick Stewart (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Conjuring) will both be joining the cast of Season 3 of The Last of Us in recurring roles.
Ritter will be playing a WLF soldier named Hanley, while Wilson has been cast as Jerry, the father of Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby. Technically, Ritter did already appear on The Last of Us, playing an unnamed Clicker in two episodes of Season 1 in the episodes where his real-life wife, Melanie Lynskey, played Kathleen.
Additionally, the report confirmed that The Last of Us has promoted three of its existing cast members — Ariela Barer (Runaways, How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Tati Gabrielle (Mortal Kombat II, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Spencer Lord (The Good Doctor, Family Law) — to series regulars for Season 3. Each of them debuted in Season 2 as members of Abby’s crew, with Barer playing Mel, Gabrielle playing Nora, and Lord playing Owen. All three characters’ lives were, in one way or another, cut short by Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) crusade for revenge in the end of Season 2… but with Season 3 jumping back in time to retell events through Abby’s point of view, we will now see more of their final moments.
These are just the latest casting updates made to The Last of Us ahead of its third (and potentially final) season. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Bumblebee, Night Teeth) will be stepping in to play Manny in Season 3, following the departure of Avengers: Doomsday star Danny Ramirez. And Clea DuVall (But I’m a Cheerleader, Happiest Season) has been cast as member of the Seraphite cult.
What Is The Last of Us Season 3 About?
While exact details remain under wraps, Season 3 of The Last of Us is expected to follow a lot of the same structure of the second half of the series’ second game, The Last of Us Part II. The game was split across two points of view, with the first half being Ellie’s up to the sudden death of Joel Miller (played by Pedro Pascal in the series) at the hands of Abby. Then, the point of view shifted to Abby, recounting several days around her and Ellie’s final confrontation.
“We’re kind of fiddling around with that — it’s a little bit of a trade secret at the moment,” showrunner Craig Mazin explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter shortly after Season 2 concluded. But I will say that season three will be longer than season two. Season three will be more on par with season one. More bang for the buck.”
“This is kind of my favorite time,” Mazin said at the time. “It’s very quiet. It’s just sitting here with my wonderful ergonomic keyboard and clacking away. The pages are happening, and I get to be a monk for a while, which I love, and I just write. It’s the purest form of what I do. And then in just a couple of months or so, that happy time will start to be less quiet because we begin a very long prep period while I’m still writing, and then we begin to shoot while I’m still writing. In seasons one and two, I finished writing about six weeks before we started shooting the last episode. I don’t necessarily recommend this method other than to say this works for me, but it is insane.”
Season 3 of The Last of Us does not currently have a confirmed release date.
(featured image: HBO)
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