The Last of Us - what to expect from season two

The Last of Us — based on the zombie survival game of the same name — averaged an eye-watering 32 million viewers per episode in its first outing, making it HBO's most-watched debut season.

After the first season garnered dozens of Emmy nominations and a fair whack of wins, it was only a matter of time before HBO adapted the game's sequel into a second season of the TV show.

We caught up with star Bella Ramsey and newbie Kaitlyn Dever (Apple Cider Vinegar) to get the lowdown on season two.

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(Contains spoilers for season one)

It has been two years since the first season premiered, so you're forgiven if you're feeling a little foggy on the details.

The Last of Us season one introduced audiences to a not-so-distant future, where a pandemic caused by the cordyceps fungus has turned most of the world's population into zombie-like creatures.

Our protagonist is Joel (Pascal), a smuggler that's used to dealing in weapons and contraband… until he's handed a petulant teen Ellie (Ramsey). She's the only known person that's been bitten by an infected person and lived to tell the tale.

Joel is tasked with getting Ellie to a rebel Firefly base so they can synthesise a cure from the immune teen's blood. But when they get there, Joel is told that the only way the Fireflies could attempt to make a cure is by killing Ellie.

Having grown close to Ellie as a proxy for his own long-dead daughter, Joel decides they should hightail it out of there — killing several high-ranking Fireflies in the process. He lies to Ellie, telling her that the Fireflies failed to make a cure from other immune people.

Season two picks up five years after Joel and Ellie escape the Fireflies, taking up residence in a zombie-free commune in Wyoming. Joel still hasn't officially let Ellie in on the lie he told her five years ago, and now a chasm has formed between the found father and daughter.

"She's changed a lot. She's gone from 14 to 19, so she's sort of growing into a young adult, although she kind of always was an adult. I think she has quite an old soul," Ramsey tells ABC Entertainment.

Ellie is even more defiant now, chafing against rules prescribed to her by an over-protective Joel, and forcing her way into the armed guard of the commune.

Ramsey, too, went through a metamorphosis on set: celebrating their 18th birthday during season one and 21st during season two, they found themselves craving the same autonomy that Ellie so desires.

"There is the natural thing of wanting independence and freedom. Especially in this industry, where a lot of the time things are prescribed to you. And when you're on set, you sort of like, belong to a production company," they say.

"I definitely have had that feeling of just wanting to be free."

While Ellie might be itching to break free of the compound's confines, new love interest Dina (Isabela Merced) might just keep her grounded. The pair have electric chemistry on screen, culminating in a starry-eyed first kiss at a compound dance.

"We had one lunch together with [series co-creator Craig Mazin] and then the next time we met was literally on set," Ramsey says.

"Me and Pedro in season one, we didn't have any time to get to know each other, we were just sort of forced into this incredible journey together and the chemistry was fostered through that. The same thing happened with me and Isabella.

"We relied on each other on set."

Having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, some fans of the original game were upset with additions to the narrative that season one built, including season one's episode 'Long, Long Time', which built a love story around two minor game characters — Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) — that resulted in an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy for Offerman.

Ramsey says fans should brace for more outer-game world-building in season two.

"I try not to give it too much oxygen because it's not the game. The game exists as the most incredible source material, but this is an adaptation, which is never going to be identical," they say.

"I think [creators] Craig and Neil [Druckmann] do an amazing job of taking the best parts of the game and expanding them into the TV show."

Perhaps the most important character for The Last of Us season two is angry Firefly Abby (Apple Cider Vinegar's Kaitlyn Dever). She's sworn a vendetta against Joel for killing her friends and mentors while escaping at the end of season one.

Dever enteredThe Last of Us'sorbit almost a decade ago, meeting with Druckmann to scope out the possibility of playing Ellie for a silver screen adaptation. While the movie never materialised, and Dever aged out of playing Ellie, she kept a close eye on the series.

"I watched [season one] probably in two days. I was just obsessed with Bella's portrayal of Ellie, I really feel they were meant to play Ellie," she tells ABC Entertainment.

"When they called me to play Abby in season two, it felt pretty surreal, like this series was always supposed to be in my life in some sort of way.

"It was just a matter of time and things aligning. In the end, I really feel like [Abby] was the person I was supposed to play all along."

While Abby is a major catalyst for part two of the game and the show, her actions have made her a lightning rod for controversy. Even Druckmann says he wanted players to initially hate the character, a tricky balancing act for Dever.

Players of the second part of the game (or those who googled the plot in a curiosity-killed-the-cat moment) know that the second instalment contains a cataclysmic shift in the narrative.

But Ramsey is keeping mum on when this moment will happen in season two, and of the ramifications.

"I can't confirm or deny that twist, because you never know what's gonna happen," Ramsey teased.

"But I will say it's quite an emotional season. Head to toe, for sure, so watch out."

The Last of Us season two is streaming on NEON.

Yes!

Season three of TheLast of Us was confirmed last week, before the second season had even premiered.

Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have said the second game is so massive that they always planned to split it into two seasons.