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The Last of Us Season 2: Young Mazino Starts Filming in 2 Weeks & More

Young Mazino revealed that he begins filming HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 in two weeks and shared some of what his training involves.

Last week was a big casting week for the second season of Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Bella)-starring The Last of Us. By the time the dust settled, we learned that Kaitlyn Dever (No One Will Save You, Last Man Standing) had been tapped for the key role of skilled soldier Abby. In addition, Beef star Young Mazino had been tapped for the role of Jesse, and Isabela Merced (Madame Web, Maya and the Three) was set as Dina. Thanks to this evening's Emmy Awards red carpet, we're getting a chance to hear from Mazino on how he preparing for filming – which he's set to start in two weeks.

"After the strike ended, I was able to get a meeting with the showrunners, and we kind of just shopped it up. I played the video game before the meeting and we had a long talk about their process and what they're looking for. I guess 'Beef' pushed me the rest of the way. That's the beauty of where I'm getting at now. It's a conversation more than an audition process," Mazino shared, calling the game "phenomenal" after his first real run at the game. As for filming, Mazino adds that he's learning "how to ride a horse" and working on firearm training. And what about Pascal & Ramsey – has Mazino met them yet? "I haven't met Pedro or Bella. I have DM'd Bella, but I haven't had the pleasure of talking to them, but I will soon," Mazino shared. Here's a look at the video from Mazino's interview with Variety:

The Last of Us: Craig Mazin on Season 2 & Beyond

In an interview with Variety from Summer 2023, Mazin discussed how a 2025 debut for the second season was still workable (depending on when the then-ongoing SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes would end), confirmed that Season 3 will happen (as long as the viewers keep watching), and addressed the possibility of familiar faces returning in flashbacks (and why they have no plans to mess with that "beautiful" episode).

"The Last of Us" Could Still Make Its 2025 Delivery Date – For Now: "We had a little more flexibility, I think, than normally just because we had to wait a little bit longer any way to line up production with the weather. A lot of what we do is outside, and so we had a schedule that weirdly hasn't been immediately impacted. But we're getting pretty close; we can't keep our original start dates forever, obviously. If these strikes go much longer, we inevitably will have to push, and that hurts us, and it hurts the audience, and it hurts HBO. We all, everybody wants to get back to work; I think everybody that's actually doing the work, including the network people who are with us on the ground, I think everybody just wants to get this solved. So fingers crossed."

"The Last of Us" Season 3 Will Happen As Long As Viewers Keep Watching: "It's going to be more than one season. There's more story, so this show will not end with Season 2 unless people don't watch it, and we'll get canceled. Barring that, we will be doing some things exactly the way they were in the game. We're going to do other things that are in the game, and we're gonna do some things that are in the game, but we're gonna do them differently in our own method. No matter if you have played the game or not. You will be surprised as the season unfolds. We have some interesting twists and turns."

Could Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid & Others Return via Flashbacks? "There's always a chance for everything. With us, you never know, and we obviously don't confine ourselves by timelines. People who are dead sometimes reappear, and sometimes we meet people that we didn't even know, and then we find out that they are somebody."

Mazin on Why There Won't Be Another Bill (Nick Offerman) & Frank (Murray Bartlett) Episode: "What you won't see is, for instance, another very special episode with Bill and Frank; we aren't going to milk it. When we do something that we think is beautiful, we let it be as it is and find other beautiful things to do."

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