📺 HOLLYWOOD STUNNED! 📺 The Last of Us Season 2 just got KNOCKED OFF HBO Max’s top spot—by CARTOONS like Rick and Morty! 😱 After a 55% viewership drop and a finale that left fans fuming, the once-mighty show is facing a brutal backlash. From Joel’s shocking exit to review-bombing chaos, is this the fall of a titan? The internet’s ROARING—some call it karma, others cry “woke” sabotage! 🔥 What’s your take? Dive into the drama and uncover the truth!
The Last of Us Season 2: Dethroned by Cartoons and Facing Hollywood’s Reckoning
When The Last of Us Season 1 premiered on HBO in January 2023, it was a cultural juggernaut, drawing 32 million viewers per episode over 90 days and becoming HBO’s most-watched debut season ever. Adapted from Naughty Dog’s acclaimed 2013 video game, the post-apocalyptic drama, starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, earned a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and widespread praise for its faithful storytelling. Season 2, which aired from April to May 2025, was expected to build on this success, adapting the first half of the polarizing 2020 game The Last of Us Part II. Instead, it has faced a dramatic fall from grace. With a finale viewership of 3.7 million—a 55% drop from Season 1’s finale—and reports of being dethroned on HBO Max by cartoons like Rick and Morty, the season has sparked intense backlash. Hollywood is grappling with the fallout, but what went wrong, and what does this mean for the future of this once-unstoppable franchise?
The Numbers: A Steep Decline
Season 2 of The Last of Us premiered on April 13, 2025, to 5.3 million viewers, a 13% increase from Season 1’s debut of 4.7 million. HBO touted this as a strong start, noting a 150% spike in Season 1 streaming on Max in the week prior. However, the momentum faltered. By Episode 2, which featured a controversial narrative choice from the game, viewership dropped to 643,000 linear viewers in the U.S., a 31.5% decline from the premiere’s 938,000. Episode 3 recovered slightly to 768,000, but the finale on May 25, airing during Memorial Day weekend and the NBA Finals, drew only 3.7 million cross-platform viewers, down 30% from the Season 2 premiere and 55% from Season 1’s 8.2 million finale viewers. HBO expects post-holiday growth, citing Season 2’s average of 37 million viewers per episode globally at the 43-day mark, surpassing Season 1’s 32 million over 90 days.
Despite these figures, the season’s performance on Max tells a different story. By early June 2025, Rick and Morty, an animated sci-fi comedy, had overtaken The Last of Us as Max’s most-watched show, a humiliating shift for a series once hailed as HBO’s flagship. Social media posts on X amplified this, with users like @YellowFlashGuy claiming a “50% drop” in finale viewership and mocking Hollywood’s “coping” narrative. While HBO argues that holiday timing and an online leak of the finale impacted numbers, the dethroning by a cartoon underscores a loss of cultural dominance.
The Controversy: A Polarizing Adaptation
The root of the backlash lies in Season 2’s adaptation of The Last of Us Part II, a game that divided fans upon release due to its bold narrative choices. The show follows Joel and Ellie five years after Season 1, settled in Jackson, Wyoming, with new characters like Dina (Isabela Merced), Jesse (Young Mazino), and Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Without spoiling key plot points, the season’s second episode, “Through the Valley,” mirrors a pivotal game moment that shocked audiences, leading to a 31.5% viewership drop. Critics praised the episode’s execution, with Tom’s Guide calling it “the best episode of TV this year,” but fans were less forgiving. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score plummeted from Season 1’s 87% to 39% for Season 2, and Metacritic’s user score fell from 6.6 to 3.9, surpassing the game’s 5.8/10 low.
The season faced review-bombing, with 61% of Metacritic’s 542 user reviews scoring 0 or 1, often citing “woke culture” or dissatisfaction with casting, particularly Bella Ramsey’s portrayal of a now-older Ellie. Some fans, unfamiliar with the game, were blindsided by the narrative shift, with one viewer on an 80 Level comment thread stating, “I was only watching for Pedro Pascal. Now that he’s gone, there’s no point.” Others criticized changes to the game’s story, such as the handling of Abby’s arc or Ellie’s relationship with Dina, which Tom’s Guide noted “cheapens” Ellie’s darker character arc. A Forbes review highlighted complaints about Ramsey’s appearance not matching an older Ellie, though Ramsey, aged 21 in 2025, is older than the character’s 19 years.
Hollywood’s Reaction: Defense and Deflection
Hollywood’s response has been a mix of defense and cautious acknowledgment. Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the latter also the game’s writer, have defended their choices, emphasizing fidelity to the game’s emotional core. Mazin told Variety that the season’s structure was necessary to adapt half of Part II’s sprawling narrative, with Season 3 set to cover Abby’s perspective. Critics largely agreed, with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score praising the “superb performances” and “thorny moral questions.” The Hollywood Reporter lauded the season’s “unrivalled storytelling,” though some, like Total Film, felt it lacked Season 1’s “rich lyricism” due to fewer Joel-Ellie scenes.
However, the industry is aware of the cost. That Park Place noted that the early narrative shift “disrupted momentum,” with some viewers not returning after Episode 2. Vice questioned whether Part II’s divisive plot was always doomed for casual viewers, pointing to the game’s 2020 backlash over similar issues. HBO’s confidence in renewing Season 3 suggests faith in long-term streaming numbers, but the immediate reaction—amplified by YouTube videos like “Last of Us Season 2 HUMILIATED again!”—has put pressure on the studio to address fan discontent. Some insiders, per Forbes, see the review-bombing as part of a broader “anti-woke” trend post-2024 election, targeting elements like Ellie and Dina’s same-sex romance.
The Cartoon Dethroning: A Symbolic Blow
The fact that Rick and Morty surpassed The Last of Us on Max is more symbolic than definitive. Animated series often have broader, more consistent streaming appeal due to their accessibility and replay value. Rick and Morty, with its irreverent humor and multiverse storytelling, has a dedicated fanbase and benefits from shorter episodes that encourage binge-watching. In contrast, The Last of Us’s seven-episode Season 2, down from Season 1’s nine, felt rushed to some, with Kotaku arguing it “softens the impact” of the game’s sparse, subtext-driven script. The dethroning, reported on YouTube and X, became a lightning rod for critics who view it as evidence of the show’s decline, with one X user stating, “HBO’s coping while cartoons steal their thunder.”
This shift also reflects changing viewer habits. Max’s diverse catalog, including Chernobyl and The Pitt, competes for attention, and The Last of Us’s heavy, emotional narrative may struggle against lighter fare during holiday periods. Yet, HBO’s claim of 37 million average viewers per episode suggests the show retains a significant audience, even if it’s no longer the platform’s top draw.
The Bigger Picture: Adaptation Challenges
The controversy highlights the challenges of adapting a divisive game for a broader audience. The Last of Us Part II was lauded critically in 2020, winning multiple Game of the Year awards, but its user scores tanked due to its narrative risks. Season 2’s fidelity to these choices—unlike Season 1’s more universally beloved source material—made backlash inevitable. GameSpot noted that the show’s review-bombing mirrors the game’s, with complaints about pacing, character changes, and ideological objections. The decision to split Part II across Seasons 2 and 3, covering only half the game, left some, like IGN, feeling the narrative was “incomplete.”
Fan expectations also play a role. The game’s interactivity allowed players to grapple with its moral ambiguity, but the show’s passive medium struggles to replicate this. Kotaku argued that HBO’s version “over-explains,” robbing the story of the game’s challenging subtext. Meanwhile, casual viewers, drawn by Season 1’s accessibility, were unprepared for Season 2’s darker tone, as evidenced by a Pajiba commenter who stopped watching after losing interest in non-Joel characters.
Looking Ahead: Can Season 3 Recover?
With Season 3 confirmed, HBO is banking on sustained streaming numbers and the promise of resolving Part II’s arc. Bella Ramsey told Variety she expects a reduced role, suggesting a focus on Abby, which could further polarize fans given her controversial reception. The show’s global viewership—90 million total since Season 1—indicates resilience, but regaining cultural dominance will require addressing pacing issues and fan trust. TechRadar suggested that Season 3’s Abby-centric narrative could either redeem the adaptation or deepen the divide, depending on execution.
The Last of Us Season 2 saga is a case study in the risks of bold storytelling. Dethroned by cartoons and battered by review-bombing, the show has lost its untouchable status, yet its strong streaming averages and critical acclaim suggest it’s far from dead. As Hollywood navigates this fallout, the question remains: can The Last of Us reclaim its throne, or will its divisive legacy define its future? For now, the cordyceps-infected world of Joel and Ellie continues to spark debate, proving its power to provoke, even in defeat.
