The Last of Us Season 3 Episode Count: What It Means for Pedro Pascal’s Return

Season 2 of The Last of Us just wrapped, and HBO is not making us guess what comes next. Season 3 is official, it’s bigger than last season, and it’s not coming anytime soon. Also: yes, we need to talk about Joel, Abby, and the very online Pedro Pascal discourse.

Season 3: What we actually know right now

The show is back in 2027. That’s a long wait, but showrunner Craig Mazin is promising a meatier run than Season 2’s seven episodes, aiming closer to the nine we got in Season 1. He told The Hollywood Reporter:

"We’re kind of fiddling around with that - it’s a little bit of a trade secret at the moment. 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."

• Timing: Season 3 is set for 2027.
• Episode count: Longer than Season 2’s seven, closer to Season 1’s nine.
• Focus: The story shifts to Abby Anderson, played by Kaitlyn Dever.
• Joel’s status: Dead in the present timeline, but not necessarily gone from the show.
• How Joel could return: Mazin has hinted at flashbacks or side stories (think the Joel-and-Tommy interludes we’ve already seen).

Quick refresher: How Season 2 ended (and why Joel’s fate is not a mystery)

If you blinked early in Season 2, you missed the show’s most brutal swing: Joel dies in Episode 2. Abby finds him at a ski lodge and kills him with a golf club, payback for her father’s death back in Season 1. Ellie sees it happen, and that trauma fuels everything she does from there.

The finale tracks Ellie’s revenge run through Seattle with Dina, who tells Ellie she’s pregnant with Jesse’s child. By Episode 7, Ellie hunts Abby’s crew to the Seattle Aquarium. She kills Owen and mortally wounds Mel, then freezes when she realizes Mel is pregnant. The season closes by cross-cutting Ellie’s moral tailspin with Abby’s backstory, ending on Abby pointing a gun at Ellie’s head. It’s grim, messy, and designed to twist the knife on both sides.

So, is Pedro Pascal in Season 3?

Maybe. In the main timeline, Joel is gone. But Mazin has said to never say never about seeing Joel again, and he’s teased potential detours that could slot in flashbacks or stand-alone beats (including more Joel-and-Tommy chaos). With Abby stepping into the center, the show has a clean lane to weave Joel into memory, myth, or one-off missions without undoing what’s already happened.

Pedro Pascal’s internet saga, the short version

Pascal’s popularity spiked across 2024 and early 2025, when he got crowned the internet’s favorite DILF. The bit traces back to a 2022 Vanity Fair moment where he joked, "I’m your daddy." His stylist, Julie Ragolia, leaned into bolder fits that went viral and challenged the usual macho mold.

Then July 2025 hit. Anti-trans activist Posie Parker circulated videos claiming Pascal was being inappropriate with female co-stars, pointing to moments where he held an arm or set a hand on a hip. The push was widely tied to his outspoken support for trans rights and criticism of J.K. Rowling. His team said the touchiness was an anxiety coping mechanism in stressful situations, while LGBTQ outlets labeled the whole uproar a manufactured controversy aimed at his activism. Things got ugly enough that Ragolia received death threats in April 2025 over his fashion choices. By September, Pete Davidson was publicly defending Pascal and calling out the internet’s favorite hobby: hype someone up, then try to wreck them.

The bottom line

Season 3 lands in 2027, it’s beefier than last season, and it pivots to Abby with Kaitlyn Dever in the lead. Joel’s story isn’t necessarily over, but expect him to appear in flashbacks or side missions rather than the present-day plot. And if the online noise around Pascal gets louder again, don’t be surprised — the show’s next chapter is built to put Abby front and center regardless.

Would you bring Joel back in a big way, or let Abby carry the season? Tell me in the comments.

The Last of Us streams on Max in the US.