HBO’s latest TV series, the zombie post-apocalypse drama, The Last Of Us, comes with a ton of baggage.
— Warning: This article contains minor spoilers from ‘The Last Of Us’ game and TV show. —
Lifted from the hugely successful videogame of the same name, the prestige show mostly follows the events of the first game as hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) escorts wise-cracking teenager (Bella Ramsay) on a road trip across a fractured America.
Making a TV series about a beloved game that has been out for almost a decade was always going to be tough. Fans are already well acquainted with the subject matter from the first game, especially after a remastered version for the Playstation 5 was released late last year.
But you know, a good story works regardless of the medium, right? Reactions to the show’s opening episode have been overwhelmingly positive, with new viewers and seasoned gamers following the plot with glee.
However, speaking as someone who has watched the first season in its entirety, I’m pretty sure (and also terrified) that deviations in the show’s plot to that of the videogame will earn the ire of the game’s surprisingly difficult fandom.
Fan Reactions To The Last Of Us 2 Were … Bad
Non-gamers innocently enjoying HBO’s The Last Of Us are probably blissfully unaware of the controversy that surrounded the game’s sequel back in 2020.
Granted, fans probably had renewed investment in the post-apocalyptic game due to the real-life pandemic that had freakishly accompanied it.
With a series critically renowned for its gritty and dark narrative the death of a key character really shouldn’t have surprised anyone, but following the violent demise of someone fans knew and loved (minimal spoilers here!), fan outrage spread way beyond the point of reasonable critique.
After the death of this central character, a very vocal minority of players were extremely pissed to discover that female and queer characters were a huge aspect of the sequel. As you can imagine, upset gamers called the developers ‘social justice warriors’ while review-bombing the game with scathing derision.
Weirdly, this ‘betrayal’ was even felt by people who hadn’t even played the game. Meanwhile, professional critics who enjoyed the game were dismissed as ‘paid shrills’ (?!).
In a perfect storm, gaming’s problematic history around diversity combined with wider conservative fears of a ‘woke takeover’ resulting in an explosion of anger and hate unseen since the days of #gamergate ensued; all over a playable character who happened to be female and queer.
The HBO Adaptation Makes Small, But Powerful Deviations From The Game
In the spirit of keeping this piece relatively spoiler-free, I will say that HBO’s adaptation makes a big departure from the first video game regarding the depiction of one character early on in the new season.
In a beautiful episode starring Murray Bartlett (our beloved White Lotus hotel manager) and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) we’re given a full-fledged view of a character whose sexual identity was previously only hinted at. While the episode isn’t perfect (too many time jumps for my liking), it beautifully subverts the apocalypse as male power fantasy trope in a way reminiscent of another excellent HBO show, Station Eleven.
While I’m positive the episode will be a critical hit, I worry it could rile fans already embittered by the great queer representation scandal of 2020. The show’s current record-breaking IMBD rating could be at risk to tactics we’ve previously seen from the malcontent fan textbook, including review-bombing and comment section hate speech.
Hopefully, I’m terribly wrong and none of this comes to pass, but in any case I would urge fans of the game to stick with HBO’s The Last Of Us – even if they think they’ve crafted a lifetime of shivs over the course of the video game series. The show is a rare beast because of just how highly aware it is of the ground it is re-treading, making every divergence feel more important and considered.
Charles Rushforth is a staff writer at Junkee. Follow him on Twitter