Post-apocalyptic 'The Last of Us' more timely than ever

When “The Last of Us” - the smash hit series about a post-apocalyptic society ravaged by a mass fungal infection - arrived on our screens in 2023, the real world was emerging from a pandemic.

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Its timely premise evidently struck a chord, as the video game adaptation's debut season drew a record-breaking 32 million US viewers per episode, according to HBO.

Now season two, which premieres April 13 and hinges on themes of conflict and vengeance, will be equally relevant and prescient, promises returning star Pedro Pascal.

Part of the show's strength is its ability “to see human relationships under crisis and in pain, and intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory, and base it off the world we’re living in,” said the actor, who plays lead character Joel.

“Storytelling is cathartic in so many ways...I think there’s a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that kind of catharsis - in a safe space,” he told a recent press conference.