The Last Of Us Season 2's New Filming Location Teases When THAT Big Joel Moment Will Happen

Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

The first set photo from The Last of Us season 2 is just supermarket signage, but that choice of filming location suggests a lot about the approach to season 2 – including that huge Joel twist. The Last of Us season 2 will be the first of at least two seasons to tackle the mega-scale second game in the series, The Last of Us Part II. The main plot of the game sends Ellie on a warpath across Seattle, but the set photo hints that the TV show will follow the game’s structure and start with the prologue set around Jackson.

The filming location used on the first day of shooting suggests that the makers of the TV show are sticking pretty closely to the source material. The first scene that the cast and crew have filmed on location in British Columbia is one of the earliest scenes in the game. This choice of shooting location for The Last of Us season 2 not only suggests how the writers are adapting the game’s storyline, but also how season 2 will differ from season 1, and how it might condense the massive narrative of The Last of Us Part II for television.

The First Set Photo From The Last Of Us Season 2 Features Greenplace Market

After being delayed to accommodate the 2023 Hollywood strikes, the second season of The Last of Us finally started filming on February 12, 2024. The first day of shooting involved Bella Ramsey playing Ellie and Isabela Merced playing Ellie’s love interest, Dina, under the direction of series co-creator Craig Mazin. The first photo from the set shows a building dressed up as the Greenplace Market, a supermarket featured in an early level of the game. While they’re on patrol, Ellie and Dina sneak into the Greenplace Market and clear out all the infected inside (including a handful of nasty clickers).

Ellie’s romance with Dina is one of the emotional cores of the game, and their patrol together is one of the biggest stepping stones in that love story, so it’s a good sign that the TV adaptation is focusing on that dynamic. Based on the appearance of Greenplace Market on the set, it seems as though The Last of Us season 2 will stay just as faithful to its source material as season 1. It might not be a shot-for-shot remake, but it won’t bow to The Last of Us Part II’s many haters and change the game’s perfect story.

Greenplace Market Means The Last Of Us Won't Waste Any Time Getting To THAT Scene

The use of Greenplace Market as a filming location means that The Last of Us season 2 won’t waste any time getting to its big Joel twist. There were some suggestions that The Last of Us season 2 would linearize all the Jackson flashbacks or pad out the story with filler to delay Joel’s inevitable death. But it seems as though the TV show’s producers have no interest in filler, and are diving right into the lead-up to Joel’s untimely death. Ellie and Dina’s patrol to the Greenplace Market is intercut with Abby tracking down Joel in the snowy wilderness.

In the game, Ellie and Dina clear out the supermarket right before Abby bumps into Joel and Tommy, suggesting that The Last of Us season 2 will get to the big twist just as quickly as its source material. It’s important for Joel’s death to happen early in the story timeline, because it needs to be just as shocking for the audience as it is for Ellie. This surprising twist tells the audience they can’t predict what will happen next. If the TV show had padded out season 2 with filler and linearized flashbacks, it would’ve taken away the impact.

The Greenplace Market Scene Can Address A Big Complaint About The Last Of Us Season 1

There are no crucial plot points in the Greenplace Market. All the exposition about Ellie’s strained relationship with Joel is provided back at Jackson before Ellie and Dina go on patrol, and the development of their romance and the news of Joel and Tommy’s disappearance both happen later on at the library. The Greenplace Market scene is just there to give gamers some zombie-slaying action to play through in between the story’s emotional beats. But the TV producers might be including this scene to address one of the biggest complaints about their approach to The Last of Us season 1.

While the Greenplace Market scene doesn’t have any major plot developments, it does have a lot of infected action. One of the biggest complaints about season 1 was the scarcity of the infected. In the game, infected are lurking around every corner, but they’re barely in the TV show. The horde that attacks Ellie and Riley was replaced by just one runner, there’s only one encounter with a clicker in the museum, and the high school gym with the bloater was cut entirely. The Last of Us season 2 might be including the clicker-infested supermarket in response to those complaints.

The Last Of Us Season 2 Could Combine The Supermarket Scene With The Library

In the game, after clearing out the supermarket and escaping through the roof, Ellie and Dina get caught in a blizzard and decide to camp out in an abandoned library instead of risking the journey back to Jackson. While staying at the library, Ellie and Dina finally confront their feelings for each other and have sex. The next morning, Jesse finds them and tells them that Joel and Tommy never came back to Jackson, sending Ellie on a search mission that ends with the game’s most heart-wrenching scene as she finds Abby brutally beating Joel to death in a basement.

Rather than adapting all these beats at their original locations, The Last of Us TV show could combine the supermarket scene with the library scene. The show could condense Ellie and Dina’s storyline from the game’s prologue into one location to save time. Instead of heading to the library, Ellie and Dina might decide to set up camp in the supermarket, and Jesse will find them there. Season 1 condensed a lot of the plot points from the first game to tell the same story in fewer steps, and it stands to reason that season 2 will do the same.