“Last of Us” Sets Disc & VOD Dates, Early S2 Talk

HBO’s “The Last of Us” wrapped on Sunday night and now the network has announced plans to release the first season on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD. The series will be available to purchase digitally on April 11th with the physical disc releases coming three months later on July 18th.

Included will be multiple extras headlined by three all-new featurettes with one involving cast and crew talking with microbiology and parasitology experts about the realities of the invasive fungus of the story. The other two will explore how the game was translated to the big screen from specific moments to expanding the game’s world.

Each of the nine ‘Inside the Episode’ featurettes is also included along with four ‘Getting to Know Me’ featurettes, two “The Last Debrief with Troy Baker” specials, and two fun “Is This A The Last of Us Line?” vignettes.

The news comes as co-creator Craig Mazin has spoken very briefly about one element the second season will explore more of. It’s an aspect of the story introduced for the series and not in the original games – the interconnected hive-like mind of the Cordyceps fungus.

Speaking on the final episode of the show’s official podcast, Mazin says:

“That, I will say, is something that I think we will be exploring further in the next season. I think this first time around, we were learning so much about how to create the Infected and how to televise them in a way that was exciting and didn’t seem goofy or weird or artificial. I think we figured out that. I think this next season, the interconnectivity of them, and the risk of stepping on the wrong thing, that stuff is going to be brought forward more for sure.”

The show has come under a bit of fire for lack of ‘infected’ with only the first two and fifth episodes making major use of them, whereas in the others they’re a most offscreen threat or limited to very brief appearances.

Meanwhile, actor Gabriel Luna says to Variety he’s ready to return as Joel’s brother Tommy for the second season. Tommy plays a large role in the follow-up and, unlike his co-stars, Luna played through both of the games before he played the role on the series and says there’s “certainly a de-evolution that happens” with his character in the next outing.

The full season of “The Last of Us” is now available on HBO Max.