The White Lotus, The Last of Us and Euphoria see new seasons delayed until 2025

HBO has confirmed that hit shows The White Lotus, The Last of Us and Euphoria will all be released in 2025 rather than 2024, as some fans had anticipated.

Speaking at a press event yesterday (2 November), HBO and Max boss Casey Bloys shared a sizzle real featuring the three titles alongside a caption that read: “Coming in 2025”.

Bloys then revealed that the TV and film writers’ strike, which ended in September, and the actors’ strike, which is ongoing, had a part to play in the delays.

“White Lotus season three probably would have been in play for 2024, it’s [now] 2025,” he explained, adding that Welcome To Derry, the prequel series featuring killer clown Pennywise, aka It, has also been moved from Halloween 2024 to 2025.

There was just one year between The White Lotus season one and season two, the latter of which concluded in 2022 with Jennifer Coolidge’s character Tanya McQuoid getting involved in a dramatic and following a much-memed altercation with a group of criminal gays.

Fans were expecting the third series, which will be set in Thailand, to air in 2024 at the latest. Not much has been revealed about what will happen in season three, other than the fact that one fan favourite character will return. 

It’s also been nearly two years since the divisive second season of Euphoria aired, following high schoolers including queer lovers Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer). A lot has happened with the cast since the first series of the gritty teen drama aired in 2019: Schafer has a leading role in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, while Zendaya is starring in blockbuster films Dune and Challengers. 

In July, one of the show’s leads, August Cloud, died of an accidental drug overdose. Other cast members including Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney have gone on to star in huge Hollywood films, while actress Barbie Ferreira has confirmed she will not be returning for the third outing.

Fans had been expecting Max to wrap up the third season as quickly as possible, before the stars outgrew the show, but production is still yet to begin, according to Variety.

The 2025 release date for season two of The Last of Us, starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal as apocalypse survivors Ellie and Joel, is perhaps the least surprising release date for fans – considering the first season only aired this year and took 200 days to film.

According to Deadline, season two will go into production at the beginning of 2024. Meanwhile, Ramsey is starring in BBC prison drama Time, and Pascal is featured in recently released queer western film, Strange Way of Life.

In the meantime, fans of the series can keep busy by replaying the The Last of Us video game, which was last month voted the ‘greatest video game of all time’ in a public poll.

Season two is set to introduce Ellie’s girlfriend Dina, and will also bring one of the franchise’s most talked about characters into the fray – Abby, who has reportedly already been cast.

On the plus side, the second season of Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, starring non-binary, Golden Globe nominee Emma D’Arcy, is set to premiere in the “early summer” of 2024.