“Expanding the Narrative: Exciting New Additions to The Last of Us Season Two Cast”
By Six additional cast members have been announced for the second season of HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us, providing insight into how the storyline will unfold based on Part 2’s narrative.
As reported by Variety, Joe Pantoliano, Alanna Ubach, Ben Ahlers, Hettienne Park, Robert John Burke, and Noah Lamanna will all join Bella Ramsey’s Ellie and Pedro Pascal’s Joel when the second season premieres next month.
Pantoliano – whose previous roles include Bad Boys for Life and The Matrix – will portray Eugene, while Burke (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) will act as Jackson resident Seth, and Lamanna (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is cast as Kat. All three characters have appeared in Naughty Dog‘s The Last of Us Part 2.
The remaining three actors will portray characters specifically created for the series. Ubach (Euphoria) is cast as Hanrahan, Ahlers (The Gilded Age) will play Burton, and Park (Hannibal) stars as Elise Park.
Please note, there will be some storyline spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 – and perhaps the show – below.
While it is still uncertain how the three original characters will be integrated into The Last of Us Part 2’s narrative, the introduction of Eugene and Kat gives us an idea of how the series is enhancing the game’s storyline.
For those unfamiliar, Kat (or Cat, as she is known in the game) was Ellie’s ex but never actually appeared in person throughout The Last of Us Part 2 – although she was initially meant to take part in the Jackson dance sequence. Instead, she was only referenced in passing, with Dina telling Ellie she didn’t think Cat was right for her, among other things. This is clearly set to change in the TV show, and a previous trailer hinted at Ellie receiving her tattoo (which originated from Cat in the game). I wonder if we will also see Kat appear in the dance sequence as well.
Next up is Eugene, who, like Kat, is mentioned in The Last of Us Part 2 but doesn’t physically appear, except in collectibles. Eugene was a patrol officer living in Jackson before passing away from a stroke at the age of 73. He developed a close relationship with Dina (portrayed in the series by Isabel Merced), and more of his backstory can be uncovered by finding a letter in-game – which reveals he had a spouse and daughter but left them to join the Fireflies, where he served alongside Joel’s brother Tommy.
“The Fireflies will be fine without you. Your daughter won’t,” the letter from Eugene’s wife Claire states. “She keeps asking me when you’re coming home. I can’t lie to her anymore. I miss you. But I don’t know how much more of this I can take. Come home. Please. We love you.”
According to Variety, Eugene’s appearance in season two will be similar to season one’s standalone Bill and Frank episode (and because of which I still cannot look at strawberries the same way).
In a recent interview about the process of adapting Part 2 for the series, it was revealed that the idea to incorporate Eugene’s backstory into the narrative originated from showrunner Craig Mazin, but Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann also had a hand in it.
“I get excited when I see these opportunities,” he told Variety. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Eugene that well!’ The story we told [in the game] was somewhat superficial. The way this character comes in really gets to the heart of Joel and Ellie and their relationship.”
Given Druckmann’s comments here, and how Bill and Frank’s relationship was expanded in the first season of The Last of Us, I can only assume that Eugene’s familial connections and his shift to becoming a Firefly will become crucial to the show’s storyline. Additionally, Eugene is also quite tech-savvy and operated a cannabis lab, so it’s likely this will be brought up too.
The second season of The Last of Us is set to premiere in the US on April 13th, and will likely contain seven episodes, with one of these episodes being “quite lengthy.”
It remains uncertain where the second season of The Last of Us will conclude, but M