Li Jun Li has joined “The Last of Us” for Season 3, taking the role of Miriam, the mother of Seraphite siblings Lev and Yara, in a casting move that deepens HBO’s next phase of the drama as it shifts toward Abby’s side of the story. The role places Li inside one of the most charged family threads from the second game, with Miriam tied directly to the sect that shapes Lev and Yara’s lives. Her casting follows earlier Season 3 additions that brought in Michelle Mao as Yara and Kyriana Kratter as Lev.
The timing matters. HBO renewed the series for a third season in April 2025, before Season 2 even premiered, a sign of unusual confidence in a show that has become one of the company’s flagship dramas. By the end of Season 2, the series had already turned sharply toward Abby’s arc, and Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann made clear in post-finale interviews that the next chapter would spend serious time inside her perspective. That shift makes the Seraphites far more than background world-building; they are now central to the conflict shaping Seattle and to Abby’s moral path through it.
Season 3’s casting has moved in that same direction for months. Clea DuVall joined as a Seraphite in February, followed by Patrick Wilson and Jason Ritter in March, along with the promotions of Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle and Spencer Lord. Li’s arrival sharpens the family side of the Seraphite story, which sits in tension with the militia war that dominates Abby’s orbit. The show is now filming in British Columbia, and recent production reports have pointed to larger-scale Seattle material already in motion.
Li enters the series after a strong run on screen that has raised her profile in Hollywood, giving the show a performer with enough precision to handle a role tied to faith, fear and parental control. The business case remains solid as well. HBO said Season 2 averaged roughly 37 million global viewers per episode, even as the finale’s same-day U.S. audience landed below Season 1’s closer during Memorial Day weekend. Season 3 is planned for 2027, with Casey Bloys saying that remains the target as Mazin works out the show’s endgame.
