The Last of Us Season 3: Abby and Lev Hit Seattle Streets in First Set Photos
TL;DR: Set photos from Vancouver confirm Kaitlyn Dever and newcomer Kyriana Kratter are filming The Last of Us Season 3 together, depicting Abby and Lev in an action sequence that closely mirrors a pivotal stretch from The Last of Us Part II. Season 3 is currently in production and expected to wrap in November 2026, with a release likely on Max sometime in 2027.
The First Real Look at Abby and Lev Together on Screen
"The Last of Us season 3 is embracing even more elements from the games." That's the framing Screen Rant put on the newly surfaced set photos — and honestly, it undersells how significant these images actually are for fans who've spent years wondering how the show would handle the back half of The Last of Us Part II.
The photos, first shared by X users CaptCanuck66 and TheLastofUsBR in late March 2026, show Kaitlyn Dever — who joined the series as Abby in Season 2 — and Kyriana Kratter, the newcomer cast as Lev, moving together through what appears to be a desolate stretch of Seattle streetscape. One image has them preparing to breach a building. Abby carries a rifle. Lev has a bow and arrow. It's a pairing that game fans will recognize immediately, and it signals that Season 3 is going to commit fully to the Abby-Lev dynamic that divided so many players when the game dropped in 2020.
What the Set Photos Actually Show — and What They're Adapting
Production on The Last of Us Season 3 began in British Columbia in March 2026, with a wrap date scheduled for November 2026. Filming is centered in Vancouver, Canada, which has doubled as Seattle throughout the series.
The specific sequence captured in the photos appears to correspond to a section of The Last of Us Part II where:
- Abby is captured by the Seraphites (a religious cult operating in Seattle)
- She's rescued by Lev and his sister Yara — both of whom are Seraphite defectors
- The three form an uneasy alliance that gradually reshapes Abby's worldview about the WLF-Seraphite conflict
According to /Film's coverage of the set photos, the rooftop and ladder imagery in the leaked images likely tracks this exact sequence. The detail of Lev armed with a bow is particularly on-point — it's one of his signature weapons in the game, and the show's costume and props departments clearly aren't improvising here.
Kyriana Kratter, who many will recognize from her role in Disney+'s Skeleton Crew, plays Lev — a transgender teenage boy and Seraphite outcast. Lev's sister Yara will be played by Michelle Mao, who's also been confirmed for Season 3. The casting has been praised by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups for its thoughtful approach to Lev's identity, which is handled with real weight in the source material.
Why Season 3 is the Most Structurally Ambitious Chapter Yet
Here's the thing nobody in the mainstream coverage is really sitting with: Season 3 isn't just a new storyline. It's a perspective shift that the show has been building toward since Joel died in Season 2, Episode 1 — and that structural move is arguably more radical on television than it was in the game.
The Last of Us Part II was polarizing specifically because it asked players to spend hours inside the head of the woman who killed the protagonist they'd grown to love over an entire game. On TV, that's even harder to pull off. You can't force a viewer to "play" Abby the way a game can. You can only make her compelling enough that audiences choose to stay.
Season 2 saw a 55% drop in viewership between its premiere and its finale — a number that's been cited widely, including by Comic Book Movie — suggesting that the Ellie-focused revenge arc tested patience for some viewers. Season 3 doubles down on the gamble. It will spend the majority of its runtime with Abby, showing what she was doing in Seattle while Ellie was hunting her. If it works, it recontextualizes everything. If it doesn't, well — the show will have alienated the audience that stuck around through Season 2's grimmer turns.
What's striking is how closely the showrunners appear to be tracking the game. The set photos don't suggest any major deviations. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have consistently described their adaptation philosophy as "faithful but not slavish," but the visual evidence so far points toward a Season 3 that's as close to a direct adaptation as the series has attempted.
Neil Druckmann's Vision for the Abby Arc
While no formal press statements have accompanied the set photo leak, series co-creator Neil Druckmann — who designed Abby's arc in the original game — has spoken previously about the character's function in the larger story. In prior interviews, Druckmann described Abby as "a character who forces you to confront your own assumptions about heroism and revenge," a framing the show has leaned into hard.
Craig Mazin, who serves as showrunner alongside Druckmann, told reporters during the Season 2 press circuit that Season 3 would feel like "a different kind of show" — one that requires the audience to actively resist their own instincts about who deserves sympathy. That's a bold promise, and the set photos suggest the production is putting the work in to back it up. (It's worth noting that Mazin's previous HBO project, Chernobyl, won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series in 2019 — so his track record with difficult, morally dense material is established.)
Movie OTT has been tracking production updates on Season 3 since filming began, and the consensus from early set observations is that the show is committing to the game's most divisive sequences rather than softening them for broader appeal.
How Indian Audiences Will Access The Last of Us Season 3
For viewers in India, here's the practical picture as it stands today.
The Last of Us Seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on JioCinema in India, which holds the HBO content library through its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery. Both seasons are available in English with subtitles, and Season 1 was made available with Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu dubbed audio tracks — a localization effort that significantly expanded the show's reach beyond English-speaking urban audiences.
Where to watch The Last of Us in India right now:
- JioCinema — Seasons 1 and 2 available (subscription required for premium content)
- JioCinema Premium — Full HBO library access
- Dubbed audio: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu (Season 1 confirmed; Season 2 dubbing availability varies by region)
Season 3 will almost certainly follow the same distribution path when it arrives, likely in 2027. Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker is the easiest way to check current regional availability across platforms, particularly as streaming rights in India can shift between JioCinema, Hotstar, and other services depending on renewal cycles.
Indian viewership for The Last of Us has grown steadily — the show's blend of action, emotional storytelling, and post-apocalyptic world-building has found a dedicated audience in metro markets, and Kaitlyn Dever's casting was well-received by Indian entertainment media during the Season 2 build-up.
The Franchise History That Brought Us Here
A quick orientation for anyone who needs it:
- The Last of Us (Season 1, 2023): Adapted the first game. Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Won eight Emmy Awards. Widely considered one of the strongest video game adaptations ever made.
- The Last of Us (Season 2, 2025): Began adapting The Last of Us Part II. Introduced Kaitlyn Dever as Abby. Ended with Abby's attack on the theater — killing Jesse, taking Tommy hostage — and a flash-back that set up Season 3's perspective shift.
- Season 3 (2026–2027): Currently in production. Confirmed as the penultimate season before a likely Season 4 finale.
Kaitlyn Dever — best known for Booksmart (2019) and Dopesick — brought a physicality and emotional restraint to Abby in Season 2 that won over many skeptics. Kyriana Kratter is a relative newcomer, though her work in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew demonstrated real screen presence for someone her age. Michelle Mao, joining as Yara, rounds out what should be the core trio for much of Season 3's runtime.
Movie OTT's franchise page for The Last of Us has the full season-by-season breakdown, including episode counts and streaming windows by region.
What to Watch for as Production Continues Through 2026
Production runs through November 2026, which means a Season 3 premiere is most plausible in late 2026 at the earliest — though early-to-mid 2027 feels more realistic given post-production timelines for a show of this scale.
The next milestones to track: an official title announcement, a first trailer (likely tied to a major awards season push), and confirmation of episode count. Season 2 ran seven episodes; whether Season 3 expands that count to accommodate the scope of Abby's story is still unknown. Hard to say if the show will compress the WLF-Seraphite war into a single season or stretch it toward that reported Season 4 finale — but the set photos suggest they're not cutting corners.
For the most current streaming availability across the US, UK, India, and Spain, Movie OTT has the live picture as release windows are confirmed.
