The long-awaited return of “The Last of Us” is nearly here.

The Emmy-winning video game adaptation is set to return to HBO this spring, with Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey and more reprising their roles. The post-apocalyptic drama series previously announced new cast members joining the fold, including Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac (the character he notably voiced in “The Last of Us Part II” game) and Catherine O’Hara, whose character hasn’t been named but could be a counselor or informal therapist for Joel, based on the Season 2 trailer.

Read on for more of what we know about “The Last of Us” Season 2.

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 premiere date

“The Last of Us” Season 2 debuts Sunday, April 13, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on Max. The seven-episode second season comes just over two years after the first season concluded.

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‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 posters feature Easter eggs

Three posters for “The Last of Us” Season 2 were released alongside the premiere date.

One shows Joel standing on top of the broken watch that his late daughter Sarah fixed for him in the first season. Another shows Ellie on top of a guitar. An early scene in “The Last of Us Part II,” the video game Season 2 is based on, features Joel bringing Ellie a guitar after promising to teach her how to play. The third poster shows Abby standing on the logo for the Fireflies.

“Every path has a price,” the tagline says.

‘The Last of Us’ cast for Season 2

In addition to its returning stars like Pascal and Ramsey, “The Last of Us” Season 2 will feature some crucial new characters.

Most significant is Abby, a major character in the game who will be played in the show by Dever (“Apple Cider Vinegar“). In the game, Abby is introduced as a woman on a mysterious mission alongside her friends Mel (Ariela Barer), Nora (Tati Gabrielle), Owen (Spencer Lord) and Manny (Danny Ramirez). She encounters Joel and his brother Tommy early in the game.

Abby is known for her buff appearance in the game, but co-creator Neil Druckmann felt this was not necessary to recapture in the show. “That doesn’t play as big of a role in this version of the story because there’s not as much violent action moment to moment,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s more about the drama.”

Other new characters include Dina (Isabela Merced), a love interest for Ellie, and Jesse (Young Mazino), Ellie’s friend and Dina’s ex-boyfriend.

• Pedro Pascal as Joel
• Bella Ramsey as Ellie
• Gabriel Luna as Tommy
• Rutina Wesley as Maria
• Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
• Isabela Merced as Dina
• Young Mazino as Jesse
• Ariela Barer as Mel
• Tati Gabrielle as Nora
• Spencer Lord as Owen
• Danny Ramirez as Manny
• Jeffrey Wright as Isaac
• Catherine O’Hara (unnamed guest star)

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 plot

“The Last of Us” Season 2 takes place five years after the events of Season 1. The first season ended with Joel making the shocking decision to massacre a group of Fireflies, who planned to use Elle’s immunity to make a cure for the infection but at the cost of her life.

In Season 2, “Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind,” HBO’s plot synopsis says.

At the start of the second game, players find that Joel and Ellie are now living in Jackson, the community of survivors they visited during the first season. Though there is a time jump, the game intersperses flashbacks to key moments from the period that was skipped over.

Released in 2020, “The Last of Us Part II” received critical acclaim but divided fans with its shocking plot turns. The game was known for its surprising and sprawling narrative structure, which may present a challenge for the HBO show to adapt compared to the more straightforward plot of the original game.

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 trailer

How many seasons of ‘The Last of Us’ will there be?

Because the second “Last of Us” game is longer and has a more complex story than the first, it will be split across multiple seasons of the HBO show.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons (2 and 3) because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,” co-creator Craig Mazin told Deadline. “We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.”

There are currently only two “Last of Us” games, but Druckmann has teased that a third may be in the works. In a documentary about the making of “The Last of Us Part II,” he said he had recently come up with a “concept” for a third game, teasing, “It does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to the story.”

This would presumably give the HBO show more material to work with, although a third game hasn’t been officially announced and would be years away from launching.

‘The Last of Us’ Season 1 episodes

“The Last of Us” Season 1 is available to stream now on Max.

The first season, which adapted the original “Last of Us” game, followed Joel and Ellie as they traveled across the country to find allies who could use her immunity to create a cure for the infection that has caused a global pandemic. Both the game and the show ended on the same scene: Joel lying to Ellie about what he did to the Fireflies.