As production forThe Last of Usseason 2 is underway with a hopeful 2025 release window, a new detail hidden in the background of Joel’s latest photo may contain the date of the show’s time jump from its first. Although there hasn’t been very much information on what season 2 of TLOU will entail, it looks as though it’s set to take over our lives just as season one did, as we are yet again captivated by its stellar cast and heartbreaking narrative as things undoubtedly become much worse.
In some new images showcasing an older Joel, played byPedro Pascal, an eagle-eyed fan has been able to work out a banner from the picture that suggests the year season 2 will take place.

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We finally have eyes on what Joel will look like in HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2. Similar to the game, Joel has aged quite a bit as we see him with slicked-back graying hair. We have already seen behind-the-scenes images of Ellie and Dina that caused alittle controversyregarding how Ellie had aged from season one. However, one fan believes they have spotted the year TLOU fans will be greeted with when its story continues next year.

In what looks to be the barn scene where Ellie and Dina dance and share their first kiss, a new image of Joel has emerged that seems to contain a banner on the wall that apparently reads ‘Happy New Year’. Below those words, the number 29 is just about visible, but with the help of a fan, they have managed to decipher the banner to read ‘2029’.
This would make sense since it’s four years from where season one left off in the spring of 2024 and since they could be celebrating the coming year of 2029, usually New Year’s Eve banners are placed to celebrate the coming year. So this also could mean that we now have our setting for the barn scene in season two with everyone celebrating the start of a new year - well, maybe not everyone.

Some fans aren’t too happy with this reveal as they feel it’s stepping too far away from the time jump in Naughty Dogs' game and also due to Ellie’s youthful appearance in season 2. “Seriously, having the time jump be only a year or two was the ONLY way having Bella playing Ellie was still going to be even slightly believable” saidHuman-Magic-MarkeronReddit. “That makes Ellie’s age even less believable lmfao” echoedKataratz.
In another interesting detail from The Last of Us season two’s set images, Ellie’s backpack can be seenfeaturing two pinson it, and one of them is the special space pin Joel gave her from the museum part of The Last of Us Part 2, which means it looks like we will get that fan favorite flashback slotted into the HBO show.

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