Production is underway in Vancouver
The Last of Us Season 3 is officially filming in Vancouver, Canada, and the first set photos are already doing what set photos always do: giving the internet just enough to argue over for weeks.
The images show Kaitlyn Dever as Abby alongside Lev, played by Kyriana Kratter, offering the first clear look at one of the season’s key new characters in live-action.
Season 2 adapted the first half of the game’s story and followed Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, after Abby killed Joel, portrayed by Pedro Pascal. Critics were very much on board, giving the season a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans, less so. The audience score landed at 37%, which is the sort of split that tends to generate a lot of opinions and very little compromise.
The next season will shift to Abby’s side of the story and expand the role of the Seraphites, the violent religious cult that appeared briefly in the third episode of Season 2.
First look at Lev
The new photos show Kratter’s live-action Lev wearing a leather outfit with a quiver of arrows on his back. In the game, Lev identifies as male and shaves his head after being assigned to become a wife to a Seraphite elder, an act of defiance against the cult’s strict rules.
That decision leads to Lev being banished. His sister Yara leaves with him. Yara will be played by Bridgerton actor Michelle Mao, though she has not appeared in any set photos yet.
Abby and Lev meet shortly after the siblings flee the Seraphites. Their story then centers on getting Yara the medical help she needs after being tortured by the cult.
What the set photos might be showing
It is not yet clear what moment the photos capture, but they may show Abby and Lev searching for a way to reach the hospital. A video from the set also shows the pair moving across a rooftop and looking into the distance, although they are too far away to hear any dialogue. A rare production mystery, in other words.
The relationship between Abby and Lev is designed to echo the dynamic between Joel and Ellie. Lev helps Abby see that violence is not the only answer and that helping others can matter too, even in a world that seems committed to proving the opposite.
That arc is also about breaking cycles of violence in a post-apocalyptic setting and trying to build something more meaningful from the wreckage. Novel concept, apparently.
It will be interesting to see how The Last of Us Season 3 develops Abby’s protective instincts in a much shorter span of time than the game had to work with.
For now, production is rolling, the set photos are out, and HBO is keeping the bigger picture under wraps, which is usually how these things go until someone accidentally posts too much.
