First photos from the set of The Last of Us Season 3 have surfaced, and they point straight to the Seattle stretch of the story that brought Abby and Lev into the center of the game. Kyriana Kratter appears as Lev in the images, sporting the character’s shaven head and Seraphite coat as production moves ahead without series creator Neil Druckmann’s guiding hand.
Druckmann has turned his attention back to Naughty Dog full-time, where the studio is working to wrap up the PS5 game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. That leaves the television version to carry on without the person most closely tied to the original games, even as the show heads into the part of the story where Abby and Lev are gearing up for a fight in Seattle.
The new photos matter because they arrive at a delicate moment for a series that has already split its audience. Season 2 drew a 92% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes but only 32% from viewers, while Season 1 had an 86% critic rating. The source framing the images says bluntly that the energy has been sucked out of HBO’s The Last of Us television series, a harsh read that reflects the gap between critical praise and audience reception.
There is also a casting dispute hanging over the images. In the game, Lev is a transgender boy, and some viewers have criticized HBO for casting Kyriana Kratter, a girl, in the role. The photos show her in full costume, but they do not settle the argument over how faithfully the adaptation is handling one of the game’s most talked-about characters.
The broader context is that Season 3 is expected to be the last instalment anyway, which gives these set photos extra weight. Halley Gross is also leaving the TV show, adding to the sense that the production is moving into its final stretch with key names stepping away. That makes the Seattle material more than a routine tease: it is a sign that the series is pressing into one of the game’s most consequential sections while the creative team around it changes shape. Whether viewers who soured on Season 2 come back for the ending will likely determine how this version of The Last of Us is remembered.
