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‘The Last of Us’ Season 3 is recasting a major character and here's what it means for the show

'The Last of Us' season 1 was based on the Naughty Dog video game of the same name created by Neil Druckmann

Whenever 'The Last of Us' returns for its impending third season, fans of the show will have to take a moment to adapt themselves to the new order of things of the show. The second season of the HBO show, which was based on a part of the video game 'The Last of Us 2', featured what was arguably the most gut-wrenching moment on the show, i.e., Joel's death at the hands of Abby. The third season not only has a high pre-set benchmark to achieve, but also must continue the narrative, taking into account a few important changes on both ends of the camera. 

Variety confirmed that Danny Ramirez, who played the character of Manny Alvarez on 'The Last of Us' season 2, will not be returning for the third season. Ramirez's occupation with other projects and the subsequent scheduling conflicts have been cited as the reason behind this decision. Thereafter, the HBO show has no choice but to recast the character. As of this writing, HBO hasn't revealed the name of the new actor who will play the important supporting character. In the past, Ramirez has been known for playing Joaquin Torres or Falcon on 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' and 'Captain America: Brave New World'. 

Manny Alvarez appeared throughout the second season of the Naughty Dog video game adaptation show as a second to Kaitlyn Dever's Abby. He is a former member of the militia group known as the Fireflies, as per The Independent. The Fireflies hospital massacre, perpetrated by Pedro Pascal's Joel to save Ellie, was a turning point in the show, in the sense that the incident wreaked havoc on the Fireflies. In his defence, Joel wasn't left with many options since the Fireflies were on the cusp of sacrificing Ellie to test the cure against the cordyceps. Although Manny survived the ensuing massacre, Abby's father did not. Abby swore revenge and eventually tracked Joel and Ellie down, with Joel meeting his tragic end as the culmination of Abby's drive for retribution. 

The recasting falls in line with several other important changes that would mark the upcoming third season of the popular show. For instance, creator Neil Druckmann, who co-created the show with Craig Mazin, announced earlier this year that he would be stepping away from the third season owing to other engagements that required his attention. His statement explained, "With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects." 

Moreover, the third season will begin with a narrative shift in which Ellie won't be the focus of the show anymore. Instead, the events of the story would unfold from the perspective of Abby. This was also confirmed by Druckmann at an Emmy's event in Los Angeles when he said, "I can’t believe that they let us structure the series in this way, meaning like, we just ended Season 2, and Season 3 is going to be starring — spoiler alert — Kaitlyn.” All episodes of 'The Last of Us' are available on HBO Max.