“The Last of Us: Season 2” 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook – Review

Fans of the live-action The Last of Us series can go ahead and own the complete second season in physical format, including a very nice-looking limited edition steelbook release.

I was provided with The Last of Us Season 2 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook by Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment for free for review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

Having debuted on April 13, 2025, the second season of The Last of Us had an uphill battle when it came to adapting the events of The Last of Us 2 video game. Set five years after the first chapter, the seven-episode-long second season experienced a lot of criticism, with most fans not enjoying the creative direction the narrative had decided to take. Video game players were expecting said change, but didn’t like how the live-action series handled the storytelling, while non-video game players were surprised by Joel’s fate (played by Pedro Pascal) and didn’t appreciate how the writers continued to handle Ellie’s revenge journey (played by Bella Ramsey).

The sophomore season saw a decline in the ratings compared to the viewership numbers of The Last of Us season one (January 2023 – March 2023). And while a third season is supposed to happen, with an expected airdate sometime in 2027, not much news has been shared about the third chapter for a while now. The last major update was from July of this year, talking about how the IP’s co-creator Neil Druckmann had decided to creatively step back from the planned season 3 of the show. Druckman co-wrote and even directed episodes from the previous two seasons. So, make of it what you will.

Anyway, I’m not here to review the second season of The Last of Us. I’ve already done episodic reviews, which you can read at your leisure here. This post is about the physical release.

The second season comes housed in a visually striking steelbook measuring approximately 8 inches by 6 inches. The front has an image of Joel and Ellie with a design of a moth in the background. Of course, the shape of the moth is made by the Cordyceps. The back of the steelbook has an image of a Firefly pendant in front of a graveyard. The color scheme is gray, sticking to the show’s sombre tone. The case comes with a paper cover with the message “Every Path Has A Price” along with screenshots featuring a bunch of other characters from the show. You also get a list of the Special Features and the 4K UHD Blu-ray specs.

With season two introducing the polarizing character Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), opening the case, you will get to see a spread depicting the scene where Abby would soon be saved by Joel after being chased through the snow by a horde of infected.

The second chapter of TLoU is housed on three discs. Now that would seem a bit too much for only seven episodes, with each episode being around an hour or so long. However, each disc comes with a bunch of extra content, justifying the need for space. Disc 1 has episodes 1-3, Disc 2 has episodes 4-5, and Disc 3 has episodes 6 and 7. The discs are just painted green. I would have liked some kind of image on them, but oh well.

I did like the plastic case inside the steelbook for the discs. It was very easy for me to take the discs out. They also didn’t fall out, no matter how hard I shook the closed steelbook. Certain other physical releases should take note.

Here’s an unboxing video of The Last of Us Season 2 4K UHD Limited Edition Steelbook!

Putting the storyline opinions to the side, TLoU season 2 does look good in 2160p Dolby Vision. The landscapes look stunning. You can feel the cold being experienced by the characters. There’s a lot of natural detail during Ellie and Dina’s journey away from Jackson to hunt Abby. The scenes during nighttime are easy to make sense of. Having said that, higher visual detail also comes with the double-edged sword of the CG looking quite fake. But that’s not a deal breaker, in the grand scheme of things, especially with how a show like TLoU focuses more on the human characters.

I didn’t experience any audio issues. Everything came across with the right amount of detail, with an important thing being how the sound effects didn’t drown out dialogue.

As for the Special Features, most of the extra content is the usual “Making of” stuff, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what went into bringing the video game’s story to the small screen. While I appreciate home releases being accompanied by extra content, I have to say that you can find a lot of the stuff for TLoU 2 online. But still, some of the featurettes were enjoyable and made me appreciate the team’s production skills more. Even though certain fans didn’t like the Battle of Jackson, you can tell a lot went into bringing that sequence to life.

The two Never-Before-Seen Featurettes are ‘Ellie’s Path’ and ‘Beneath the Surface: The Visual FX of The Last of Us’. I doubt it’s even possible for the creative team to sway certain people’s opinions about what Ellie’s been through. Their minds were made up the moment Abby attacked Joel. But at least the featurette tried to share where Ellie’s coming from. Frankly, I enjoyed the Visual FX featurette a lot more.

All in all, if you are a fan of The Last of Us IP as well as a fan of preserving media, I recommend picking up the second season on Blu-ray or DVD. I have no idea if a third season will ever see the light of day. And with how iffy the situation can get with content availability on streaming services, I’m all for preserving media, especially media that features queer representation. No matter where you stand with TLoU, the fact remains that it’s one of the rare examples of live-action content that became globally popular while having an openly queer lead character.

So, yeah, do it for the culture!

What did you think of The Last of Us season 2? Have you picked up the physical home release?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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