“The Last of Us” stars preview season 2's infected assault on Jackson: 'An absolute hurricane of stimuli'

The stars of The Last of Us season 2 remain wary of slipping any spoilers, especially for the sake of anyone who hasn't played the video games. Still, there are a few things we can surmise.

One example: The early trailers show a massive horde of infected attacking the gates surrounding the Jackson, Wyo., community run by Maria (True Blood and Queen Sugar star Rutina Wesley), the wife of Joel's brother, Tommy (FUBAR's Gabriel Luna). The same footage also depicts an armed Tommy running up and down the walls' perimeter, desperately trying to rally the troops as a snowstorm rages. We then see him go toe-to-toe in a back alley with a Bloater, armed only with a flamethrower.

Luna and Wesly tease what's in store when this moment arrives. "Just the horses and fire...There's like two inches of brass on the ground from all the rounds that we're firing in this thing," Luna tells Entertainment Weekly. "The whole thing was an absolute hurricane of stimuli, and it gave us everything you needed."

He agrees it is "absolutely" one of the bigger action pieces of the new season, which premieres Sunday, April 13. The episode, the actor notes, was directed by Mark Mylod, a four-time Emmy winner for his work on Succession. "He has this incredible ability to place the balance, the scale, the scope, the epic-ness of it all, and these relationships," Luna says. "He'd pull us aside and have this beautiful, whispered conversation about our intention and our love and everything that this entire action set piece is a part of. It's an element of that story; our stuff is not just an aspect of this chaos."

According to Luna, the sequel was "shot on several city blocks" that production designer Don Macaulay and his team built, including full interiors of most of the buildings. "It is massive," Wesley says of the Jackson set. "I just remember being in awe that they would build it with that much detail. It was huge."

The events of The Last of Us season 2 pick up five years after the season 1 finale. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are now a part of the society within the Jackson community, though their relationship is strained. When a mysterious group of survivors, led by soldier Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), arrives on their doorstep, this period of relative peace is quickly shattered.

Maria and Tommy are also in a different place in their lives than they were in season 1. The last time we saw Maria, she was pregnant. Five years later, their son, Benji, is growing up before their eyes. "I think it raised the stakes, absolutely, having a child," Wesley remarks. "We were already protective of each other before, but now that we have Benji, I think it makes us even more ultra protective of him and also of the community. We are going to survive in whatever way we can, but for Maria, it's family first. So whatever she would have to do to ensure that Benji's safe, she's going to do it. She's always been that kind of a woman, but now there's just a different edge to it because there's another life that she's responsible for."

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

In a lot of ways, Benji marks a second chance for these characters. The story of The Last of Us begins with the image of Joel losing his daughter as the cordyceps virus first breaks out. Season 1 then deals with the lingering trauma of a parent losing a child, only for Joel to then forge a new kind of a family with Ellie and then once again be faced with losing her on the Firefly operating table. Maria, too, had a child, a son named Kevin, who died. The character also lost a niece, named Sarah.

"This is an opportunity for us to prove that we can get it right and that we can be the fierce protectors and parents that everyone hopes they can be," Wesley says of Benji. We'll see how Maria and Tommy then deal with the threat of an infected horde.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly