Yesterday, HBO unveiled the latest trailer for The Last of Us Season 2 during a SXSW panel (March 8), featuring stars like Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Released just over a month before the season’s premiere on April 13, this footage blends tender moments, intense action, and a piercing close that’s hard to shake. Pedro Pascal returns as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, with newcomers Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Isabela Merced as Dina joining the cast. The trailer primes us for a season that looks emotionally charged and action-packed, but it’s Ellie’s final line—”You swore”—that delivers the deepest cut, pointing to a rift between her and Joel rooted in their past.
Set five years after Season 1, The Last of Us Season 2 finds Joel and Ellie in Jackson, a brief respite teased by Ellie slow-dancing with Dina—a flicker of warmth in their bleak world. Abby appears too, marching through snow, her purpose hinted at but not spelled out. The infected return, fiercer than before, underscoring the relentless danger they face. Yet it’s the trailer’s ending that hits hardest, a moment that feels like it’s been building since the last season faded to black.
The trailer closes with Ellie facing Joel, her voice breaking as she says, “You swore,” before the screen cuts to black. This ties directly to Season 1’s finale, where Ellie asked Joel to swear his story about the Fireflies was true—that they couldn’t make a cure and had stopped trying. He swore it was, a lie to shield her from the truth that he killed them to save her. That moment, raw in Bella Ramsey’s delivery, carries the weight of that broken trust. It’s not loud—no infected, no chaos—just two people and a promise that didn’t hold. And that quiet makes it devastating.
For anyone who watched Season 1, this line stings. Joel and Ellie’s bond, built through grief and grit, was the core of that story. Hearing her call back to his oath now, years later, shows how that lie still festers. The trailer doesn’t say more, but it doesn’t need to—Bella Ramsey’s tremble and Pedro Pascal’s silence say enough. It’s a preview of a fracture we knew was coming, one the show’s been setting up since Joel carried Ellie out of that hospital.
The trailer isn’t all heartbreak. Ellie and Dina’s dance offers a glimpse of something softer, a connection Ellie clings to. Abby’s snowy trek signals a new threat, her role tied to the bigger story fans might recognize from The Last of Us Part II. The infected remind us the world hasn’t gotten kinder. But it’s Joel and Ellie’s moment that sticks, a callback to their history that promises more pain ahead.
HBO’s been strategic with this buildup—teasers on The Last of Us Day, clips at The Game Awards, and now this SXSW reveal. With seven episodes, Season 2 aims to pack a punch, and this trailer proves it’s on track to deliver.
As we near April 13, when The Last of Us Season 2 lands on HBO and Max, this trailer lays out what’s at stake. The action’s sharp, the new faces intriguing, the tension palpable. But it’s Ellie’s “You swore” that lingers—a nod to a lie from Season 1, a trust broken, a bond tested. It’s the kind of moment that defines The Last of Us: not the monsters or the fights, but the human cost that cuts deepest. I’ll be ready with tissues when it drops.
