Jason Ritter has been cast in The Last of Us season 3 as Hanley, a soldier with the Washington Liberation Front, in a recurring role.
The announcement came March 16, 2026, reported simultaneously by Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Patrick Wilson was announced alongside him in a separate recurring role as Jerry, Abby’s father. Production is underway in Vancouver and season 3 is expected to premiere in 2027.
What makes Ritter’s casting worth a second read is the footnote: he has technically already been in this show. In season 1, episode 5, he appeared as a Clicker, one of the fungus-infected creatures that serve as the show’s primary horror element, during the episodes that featured his wife Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen Coghlan, the resistance leader in Kansas City.
It was an uncredited cameo, spotted by fans who recognized him in behind-the-scenes footage posted by HBO. He did not have dialogue.
Ritter did not have a face. He had a head full of cordyceps prosthetics and presumably a very patient makeup team.
This time he has an actual character. Hanley is a named WLF soldier in a recurring role, which, in the context of what season 3 is building toward, carries narrative weight.
What Is Season Three Really About?
The Last of Us season 3 picks up what the show’s second season began but could not finish.
Season 2 adapted the opening sections of The Last of Us Part II, the video game sequel that Naughty Dog released in 2020, and ended on the kind of unresolved note that the game itself was structured to create.
Season 3 will complete that adaptation, telling the story primarily from the perspective of Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever.
For those who haven’t played the games, Abby’s story is the engine that drives everything. Jerry Anderson, the character Patrick Wilson will play, was a surgeon at St. Mary’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
He was killed by Joel, Pedro Pascal’s character, in the sequence that ended season 1, when Joel broke into the hospital and stopped the surgery that would have used Ellie’s brain tissue to attempt to create a vaccine for the fungal infection.
The surgery would have killed Ellie. Joel killed the surgical team to stop it and took Ellie out of the hospital.
Jerry was Abby’s father. She was a teenager when it happened. She spent years afterward finding out who was responsible, training with the WLF in Seattle, and building the capability to do something about it.
That is the entire engine of the Part II story, and it is what season 3 will dramatize.
Patrick Wilson’s casting as Jerry means that season 3 will take audiences back to the events that preceded season 2, into Abby’s past, her relationship with her father, and what she lost the day Joel walked into that hospital.
The WLF And What Ritter’s Role Means
The Washington Liberation Front is the armed faction Abby belongs to. They control a significant portion of Seattle, operate out of a former professional sports stadium turned military base, and are in constant conflict with another faction, the Seraphites, a religious group who are the WLF’s primary enemy.
The WLF provides the institutional structure for Abby’s life in Seattle, they are where she trained, where she has friends, where she has the relationships that season 3 will put under pressure.
Hanley, the character Ritter will play, is a WLF soldier. The specific details of the role have been kept vague beyond that description, but WLF soldiers in the Part II game occupy everything from frontline combat roles to background ensemble positions, depending on their proximity to Abby’s story.
A recurring role in that faction suggests Hanley will be present across multiple episodes and will intersect with Abby and the other WLF characters in ways that accumulate over the season.
Ritter brings a particular kind of warmth and versatility to the role. He is currently starring in Matlock on CBS and previously had a long run on A Million Little Things, both ensemble dramas that asked him to operate in spaces where relationships carry more weight than plot mechanics.
The WLF storyline in Part II is, at its core, about exactly that: a group of soldiers who care about each other navigating an apocalyptic world where caring about anyone puts you at risk.
Who Is In The Full Cast?
The March 16 announcement included more than just Ritter and Wilson. Three actors who appeared in season 2 in smaller roles have been promoted to series regulars for season 3. Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora Harris, and Spencer Lord as Owen Moore.
Each appeared in three episodes of season 2. Their promotion to regular status signals that these characters, all members of Abby’s WLF circle, will be central to season 3 in a way they were not in season 2, which was still primarily structured around Joel and Ellie.
Returning leads include Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Gabriel Luna as Tommy Miller and Jeffrey Wright.
Clea DuVall has also joined the cast for season 3 in a role that has not yet been described.
Jorge Lendeborg Jr. joins as Manny, a WLF soldier who plays a significant role in the Part II game, replacing Danny Ramirez, who had played the character in season 2 but had to exit due to a scheduling conflict.
One casting that will not happen. Catherine O’Hara had been planned to reprise her role as Gail, the character she played in season 2, but she passed away in January 2026.
Season Three Goes To One Co-Creator
Season 3 moves forward without one of the people who built it. Neil Druckmann, who wrote and directed the original Naughty Dog games and co-created the HBO series with Craig Mazin, announced on July 2, 2025 via Instagram that he was stepping away from the show before season 3 production began.
He cited the need to focus entirely on Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which he is writing and directing. Craig Mazin continues as sole showrunner.
Druckmann’s departure is significant on paper, the creator of the source material, the architect of the story that season 3 will adapt, is not in the room.
In practice, Mazin has demonstrated through two seasons that he understands both the material and the particular demands of adapting it.
The two-creator dynamic produced some of the most acclaimed television of the past several years. Whether one creator produces the same result is what season 3 will answer.
Production is running through November 27, 2026 in Vancouver. HBO has confirmed 2027 as the target premiere window. No specific date has been announced.
