"Season 2 of The Last of Us Will Feature One of the Most Terrifying Infected Foes from the Games"

Ahead of its release next month on HBO Max, The Last of Us actor Pedro Pascal has begun speaking more about the second season of the show. Adapted from the critically acclaimed sequel, The Last of Us season two is set five years after the first series and the fallout from its season finale. With bigger stakes and strained relationships, Pedro Pascal–who plays Joel–explained in an interview that everything established in the first season of the post-apocalyptic show is being amplified for its return to TV.

“It’s definitely a bigger, far more ambitious, and risk-taking season,” Pascal said to Empire. “And, if it can even be imagined, further tests our strength against a world we’re already afraid to be in.”

While you can expect plenty of drama between the cast as they find themselves in intense situations, the monsters of The Last of Us won’t be taking a backseat to all of this squabbling. Showrunner Craig Mazin added that viewers will get to see more Cordyceps-infected people in season two, including the infamous stalkers who harassed players in the video game.

While a regular person infected with the Cordyceps virus devolves into a mindless carrier for the fungus hellbent on spreading the spores as far as possible, the stalkers are smarter and sinister variants who can coordinate and ambush anyone who stumbles upon them. According to The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann, that creepy variant can “do things that we’ve never seen any other infected do” on the show.

The Last of Us season two will premiere on April 13 on HBO Max, and it also stars Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Young Mazino as Jesse, and Joe Pantoliano as Eugene. While the new season includes several faithful nods to its source material–like airborne Cordyceps spores–it won’t be a shot-for-shot remake of the video game and Mazin is expecting a “furor” over some of the creative decisions that have been made.

Beyond the TV series, a PC version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will arrive on April 3, but a third instalment in the video game franchise doesn’t look likely for now.