Patrick Wilson Joins The Last Of Us Season 3 Cast As Key Video Game Character

Big news for fans of Craig Mazin's ongoing HBO adaptation of "The Last of Us": Patrick Wilson and Jason Ritter are joining the cast in two major roles, per Deadline.

As the outlet points out, Ritter actually appeared on "The Last of Us" during its debut season in 2023; his wife, "Yellowjackets" star Melanie Lynskey, played the brief supporting role of resistance leader Kathleen, and Ritter joined her on-set in enormous prosthetics as a "clicker" (one of the many types of zombies depicted in the dystopian series). He'll reappear in season 3 as Hanley, a soldier with the Washington Liberation Front. 

Wilson, though? The star of "The Conjuring" franchise will take on the absolutely vital role of Jerry Anderson, father to Abby (a role that debuted in season 2 with Kaitlyn Dever playing the anti-heroine). He's ever-so-briefly played by Darren Dolynski in seasons 1 and 2 because — spoiler alert! — he's killed by Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller in a crucial, climactic scene in the season 1 finale, and with Wilson taking the reins, it's quite clear that Jerry will appear in a larger role in flashbacks.

"The Last of Us" has been a massive hit for HBO since its premiere, especially because it had a built-in fanbase thanks to the original Naughty Dog video game. (The game's creator, Neil Druckmann, was originally a showrunner alongside Mazin but exited after season 2 to focus on his work at Naughty Dog.) As the story continues, we're set to get more of Abby's story, which is exactly how Wilson's performance will come into play.

First of all, kudos to the casting department at "The Last of Us" — not only is Patrick Wilson a phenomenal performer who's been turning in great work for decades now, but there's a definite resemblance between him and his on-screen daughter, Kaitlyn Dever. We'll only see Jerry in Abby's flashbacks (as is the case in the games), because in that aforementioned season 1 finale, Joel shoots Jerry and a handful of nurses as they prepare to operate on the girl who has become his surrogate daughter, Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Even though the surgery could potentially lead to a cure for the cordyceps virus, it would kill Ellie, and Joel makes a heartbreaking choice: He saves the girl he's come to love as his own kin, even though that means potentially dooming humanity.

That's precisely why, in one of season 2's most infamous moments, Abby gets her revenge and violently beats Joel to death with a broken golf club, all while Ellie watches and howls in misery, vowing vengeance in return. We know, from the season 2 finale of "The Last of Us," that the show will continue faithfully following the game and give us quite a lot of time from Abby's perspective ... and all in all, it's incredibly exciting that a powerhouse actor like Wilson will get to appear on-screen alongside Dever.

The first two seasons of "The Last of Us" are streaming on HBO Max now, and season 3 is slated to air sometime in 2027.