Latest news with #TheLastOfUs
New York Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Best TV Shows of 2025, So Far
The first half of 2025 saw the return of strike-delayed hit shows, like 'Severance,' 'The White Lotus' and 'The Last of Us,' that took turns dominating the cultural conversation. But only one of them made our top TV list. Read on to find out which one and to see which other series, new and old, scripted and nonfiction, impressed our television critics the most (listed alphabetically). 'Andor' A prequel series to 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (2016) — and arguably the most acclaimed 'Star Wars' story of any kind since that film — 'Andor' offered one of TV's deepest explorations of the political realities and human costs of rebellion. Its two-season run wrapped up in May. 'Prequels are often where dramatic tension goes to die,' James Poniewozik writes. 'How invested can you be in a story whose outcome you already know? The genius of 'Andor,' created by Tony Gilroy, is to make that knowledge an asset.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Threads Adds Spoiler Tags for Posts
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. After testing them out over the past few months, Threads has now launched its new spoiler tags in posts, which will enable users to hide words in their posts behind a tappable overlay. As you can see in this example, posted by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, now if you want to mention something without letting everyone see (like, for example, a TV show spoiler), you can highlight the relevant text within the composer, then select 'Mark spoiler' to blur it. Viewers will then have the choice as to whether they want to reveal that info or not, which will add another engagement element to your Threads posting options. As noted, Threads has been developing this for some time, with the first indicators of the feature spotted in testing back in January. The option is similar to the spoiler tags on Reddit, providing another consideration when sharing potentially disruptive info. The main target here is TV show discussion, which is still a major element of interaction on X, though Threads says that it's also seeing more chatter about trending shows, including 'The Last of Us' and 'The White Lotus.' Tapping into trending entertainment discussion could help Threads become a bigger competitor for X, and grow its evolving community, which is steadily rising to become a more important companion for live event discussion. Indeed, Threads is now up to 350 million monthly active users, and continues to see strong download momentum. X reported back in March that it's now serving 600 million monthly actives, though it is also losing users in some markets. By focusing on live event discussion, which also includes live sports, Threads is hoping to be able to dethrone X as the place to be for in-the-moment engagement. And if it can win over more of these communities, it could well be on track to become the next billion-user platform, as envisioned by Zuck and Co.
Geek Feed
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
Confirmed: Kaitlyn Dever is the Lead of The Last of Us Season 3
A lot of fans were disappointed that Kaitlyn Dever was too old to play Ellie when The Last of Us series was announced, but they did manage to bring her to the show in the form of Abby—Ellie's rival. Now with Season 2 ended, and fans looking forward to Season 3, series co-creator Neil Druckmann has confirmed that Dever will actually be the lead for the next season of The Last of Us . He confirms it at an Emmys FYC event: Kaitlyn Dever reacts to being officially confirmed by Neil Druckmann as the lead in #TheLastOfUs Season 3 — The Last of Us News (@TheLastofUsNews) June 10, 2025 This should come as no surprise to people who have played The Last of Us Part II . After all, one of the biggest twists in the game is finding out that you have to play the entirety of the Seattle timeline from Abby's perspective. Admittedly, game fans were worried that the series won't be able to milk the same kind of emotional reaction from players like the game did, but so far, I think the changes that have been done were for the better, including the reveal of Ellie and Joel's last talk and Abby's reason for going after Joel. Unsurprisingly, there are already a lot of fans that have been bashing the second season for not meeting expectations, but hopefully Druckmann and co-showrunner Craig Mazin stick true to where they want to go because I wasn't expecting the fandom to play nice—particularly with this very divisive story. I just hope we don't have to wait another two years to finally see what Abby's Seattle story is going to be like. No release date has been set for The Last of Us Season 3.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
TV Ratings: ‘The Last of Us' Season 2 Finale Falls Short of Premiere
The season two finale of The Last of Us brought in a smaller first-night audience than either the season premiere in March or its first season finale in 2023. The season finale drew 3.7 million viewers on HBO and Max on its first night, down from 5.3 million for the season premiere in April. It's also well short of the 8.2 million viewers for the close of the first season in February 2023. More from The Hollywood Reporter Streaming Ratings: 'The Four Seasons' Blooms in Premiere Week, 'You' Stays on Top 'The Chi' Renewed for Season 8 at Showtime YouTube Stays Atop TV Distributor Rankings in April Some of the decline for the May 25 episode may be due to the fact that it debuted on the Memorial Day weekend, when viewing levels are typically lower than normal. HBO notes that the second season is averaging 37 million worldwide viewers across all platforms — 'worldwide' being the key word there. Season one drew 32 million cross-platform viewers in the U.S. alone (HBO measures viewing for its shows for 90 days after a season premiere); HBO hasn't released a U.S.-only figure for the current season. Other ratings items: • Fox Sports got a big turnout for its inaugural broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. The 109th edition of the race averaged 7.05 million viewers, the highest mark for the Indy 500 since 2008 (with the caveat that out of home viewing wasn't included in Nielsen's ratings until 2020). It was up 40 percent year to year (the 2024 race aired on NBC) and peaked with 8.4 million viewers from 4:15-4:30 p.m. Sunday. Fox is in the first year of a rights deal with IndyCar, which previously had a longstanding relationship with NBC Sports. • The seventh season premiere of The Chi delivered 2 million cross-platform viewers over its first seven days. Showtime says it was also the most streamed premiere in the show's history, narrowly beating out the season 6B opener in May 2024. The Chi has set premiere viewership records in each of its last three installments, a rarity for a show that has been around for as long as it has. • The first American Music Awards since 2022 — and the first on CBS — posted improved numbers. Monday's show, hosted by Jennifer Lopez, averaged 4.86 million viewers, leading Memorial Day on broadcast networks and growing by 38 percent over the last AMAs telecast in November 2022 on ABC. The CBS telecast was up by 23 percent (0.63 rating to 0.78) in the key ad sales demographic of adults 18-49. After seven days of linear viewing, the AMAs grew to 5.2 million viewers, its best mark since 2019. About 10 million people watched at least six minutes of the CBS broadcast or encores on MTV, CMT and BET. The AMAs are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation, The Hollywood Reporter's parent company, in a subsidiary joint venture between Penske Media and Eldridge. June 5, 9:30 a.m. Updated with additional ratings figures for the American Music Awards. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Last of Us' Creators Confirm Kaitlyn Dever-Led Season 3: 'I Was Sure They Wouldn't Let Us Do This'
[This story contains major spoilers from season two of .] While celebrating the second season of The Last of Us at an Emmys FYC event on Tuesday, co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann offered up a few details about what's in store for season three. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Materialists' Review: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal Bring Affecting Soulfulness to Celine Song's Perceptive Romantic Drama 'The Last of Us' Co-Creator Craig Mazin Dissects That Feared Final Moment of Season Two Ariana Grande, Pedro Pascal, Sabrina Carpenter Sign Open Letter Supporting Federal Funding for LGBTQ Youth Suicide Prevention The duo took part in two panels at the event, the first alongside cinematographer Ksenia Sereda, costume designer Ann Foley, editor Timothy Good, composer David Fleming, production designer Don Macaulay and visual effects supervisor Alex Wang. During that conversation, Mazin mused how they build these extensive, meticulous sets and 'we tend to light things on fire, smash them, tear them down' — something they may change for season three. 'It's more of a water season than a fire season,' Druckmann revealed, as Mazin confirmed, 'It's a wetter season than a hotter season.' Later, following a screening of the season's second episode, Mazin and Druckmann returned with stars Bella Ramsey, Isabela Merced, Gabriel Luna and Young Mazino, with Kaitlyn Dever appearing virtually as she's working on another project in Australia. Rob McElhenney, who repeatedly declared The Last of Us 'my favorite show on television,' moderated the conversation. Druckmann discussed how he'd been involved in several failed attempts to adapt his video game and 'I think it was good to go on that journey to end up at HBO, end up at a place that leaned into those controversial decisions, I guess,' like killing off Pedro Pascal's character Joel early in the second season. 'But the decisions are just what the story required, and even now, it's like I can't believe that they let us structure the series in this way. Meaning like we just ended season two, and season three is going to be starring — spoiler alert — Kaitlyn.' 'What?!' Dever jokingly reacted, as McElhenney teased, 'Had you closed your deal yet? You just got a ton of leverage.' Druckmann continued, 'I was sure that they wouldn't let us do this when we started adapting this, but they've leaned into what makes, I believe, the story special. And allowed us not only the time but the creative freedom to be able to take these swings, and I think the audience really appreciates that.' Dever joined the second season as Abby, a divisive character in the video games who brutally murders Pascal's beloved character. It had been speculated that the third season would shift to tell Abby's story, but had not yet been explicitly confirmed. The actress said taking part in the conversation, even remotely, 'makes me so happy to be a part of this family and to get to look forward to the journey we have ahead too.' Dever added that 'the controversy surrounding Abby was never really a concern for me, just given my first meeting with Craig and Neil and how wonderful they are and how talented they are. Getting on set, I've never felt so carried on a set in my life.' As McElhenney jokingly berated Dever for killing Pascal — 'You killed America's Sweetheart! You brutally murdered America's Sweetheart with a golf club' — Mazin explained the decision, noting, 'To invest all this time and then go away for a long time and then come back, it's even more dangerous to do what we did, and that's why I thought it should be done, because it doesn't happen enough.' 'I think plot armor is a real problem and in a show where we try and keep things as grounded as possible, and we want people to feel in real danger, then yes, sometimes the people that we can't imagine dying die,' he continued. 'Because, for me, this is not a show about revenge, it's a show about grief. Well, how are we supposed to grieve if nobody we truly, truly are invested in dies?' Read THR's The Last of Us season two coverage. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
