Coming hot off the heels of the series premiere of HBO's The Last of Us, the official runtimes for Episodes 2, 3, and 4 have been revealed.
The series debut was a resounding success for HBO, becoming the second biggest premiere since 2010 on the network as it raked in 4.7 million US viewers.
The PlayStation video game adaptation sees the iconic pairing of Joel and Ellie (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) take to the screen in a journey across a post-pandemic America.
Game director-turned-showrunner Neil Druckmann and writer/director Craig Mazin have been keen on packing as much as they can into these episodes, with Episode 1 clocking in at a whopping 85 minutes.
Now fans have an idea of what to expect for the next couple of episodes as well.
The Last of Us Runtimes Revealed
By way of HBO's official schedule (via a post on Reddit), the runtimes for The Last of Us Episodes 2, 3, and 4 have been posted online.
While none of the next three entries into the series will hit the high water mark set by Episode 1, at least one will get close.
Episode 2 (titled "Infected") airs on January 22 and will come in at 55 minutes.
According to Rolling Stone, The episode is set to focus on Joel (Pedro Pascal), Tess (Anna Torv), and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), as the trio traverses through an abandoned and flooded Boston hotel on their way to drop Ellie off with a group of Fireflies.
Episode 3, airing on January 29 will be 80 minutes.
This will seemingly be the installment to introduce Nick Offerman's Bill (along with his partner Frank), with the crew butting heads with Melanie Lynskey's Kathleen, the leader of a heavily-armed militia. Episode 3, while currently untitled, is what some are calling an early frontrunner for the best episode of TV in 2023.
And Episode 4, set to premiere on February 2, has a 50-minute runtime.
One thing to keep in mind is all of these runtimes are slightly inflated simply because HBO always includes about four minutes of end credits in their runtime totals.
What to Expect in The Last of Us' Next Episodes
After Episode 1 of HBO's new zombie drama hit the ground running, it is exciting to see that things will not be slowing down going forward from here.
One may be concerned because these Episodes 2 and 4 are shorter than Episode 1; however, what has be taken into account is the recently revealed detail that the series premiere was initially going to be split into two installments that were about 40 minutes long instead of the 85-minute epic fans received.
It is interesting to see that Episode 3 clocks in well over the hour mark. There is a lot to fit into these nine weeks if The Last of Us is going to cover everything from the first game and Left Behind DLC, so it would make sense that a couple of these runtimes reach near-movie-length totals.
Episode 3 is the star here, with its 80-minute runtime and talk of it being one of the series' highlights, surely fans will get a lot to chew on, as Joel and Ellie meet Bill and Frank.
Bill's town was one of the highlight sequences from the original PlayStation 3 game. And judging from the reactions of those who have seen the whole first season, the series will be following suit with his portion of the adventure.
HBO's The Last of Us continues its nine-week run with Episode 2 premiering on January 22.