The Last of Us season 2's release date has been set for mid-April, and I'm certain that I know when its next trailer will arrive

• HBO has finally announced The Last of Us season 2's release date
• The hugely popular TV show will return to our screens in mid-April
• Three new character posters have also been released

HBO has finally confirmed when The Last of Us season 2 will be released.

The hugely popular post-apocalyptic drama, whose first season wowed audiences in early 2023, will return to our screens on Sunday, April 13. Well, in the US – fans in the UK and Australia will have to wait until Monday, April 14 to tune into the next seven-part installment.

The confirmation, which came yesterday (February 19), arrived alongside some new character posters, which show one of season 2's leading trio: Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who appeared in The Last of Us TV show's first installment, and season 2 newcomer Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.

An adaptation of Naughty Dog's critically-acclaimed and multi-award-winning video game series, The Last of Us tells the tale of Joel and Ellie, two loss-afflicted individuals thrown together by happenstance amid a mass extinction event. Humanity has been ravaged by the cordyceps virus, a fungal disease that turns infected people into mindless and violent zombie-esque monsters, and the pockets of humankind that remain have become insular, fear-mongering or fearful communities that battle to survive.

The Last of Us season 2 will pick up events five years after its predecessor's finale. Per a brief logline, Joel and Ellie will be "drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind".

Season 2's launch date announcement has been a long time coming. The first we knew about the show's return was the inclusion of The Last of Us 2's first-look footage in a new Max trailer, which arrived last August, that revealed it would be with us sometime in 2025. One month later, HBO boss Casey Bloys confirmed it would be released in the first half of 2025, before a November 2024 update from Bloys revealed The Last of Us season 2 would debut in early 2025. HBO announced an April 2025 launch during a Sony presentation at CES 2025 last month, too, which was the latest update we received on the US network's hugely successful TV Original.

Is a new trailer for The Last of Us season 2 going to be released?

I'd be very surprised if one isn't. The Max series' next chapter is one of the most anticipated new shows of 2025, so you can bet that HBO will release a new trailer to build excitement ahead of season 2's launch.

So, when might a new teaser make its way online? I have no insider knowledge on the matter, but I'm convinced that we'll get one on Saturday, March 8. Per HBO (see the X/Twitter below), that's the date that a season 2 panel will be held as part of South by South West (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, which seems as good a time as any to release some more footage for us to pore over.

We haven't been starved of footage for one of the best Max shows' sophomore outing thus far, mind you. The Last of Us 2's unsettling first teaser was released last September and, while it didn't give away too much (hey, there are people who haven't played the games, so nothing major could've been spoiled), it provided first-looks at some of this season's new cast, including Dever's Abby. Another teaser was released in mid-January, too – although, after its release, online discussions were dominated by fan concerns about the welfare of one of its new cast members.

Want more details on the hit show's return? Read my dedicated guide on The Last of Us season 2 or find out how many more seasons it might run for, according to HBO's Head of TV Francesca Orsi.

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