The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann explained the reasoning behind a major story change in Season 1, Episode 7, "Left Behind."
Appearing on HBO's The Last of Us Podcast, Druckmann discussed why Ellie and Riley are only attacked by a single infected in the HBO series. "In the game, there's no indication until much later that there are infected, and it's clear there are a lot more infected that ambush the player. We have the characters comment on how it should be full of infected, but Riley is correct when she says it’s not," he said. "There’s only one [infected], that’s all it takes, and what wakes him up is the sound of their joy and laughter and fun ... One of the fears you have in this world is that you’re never safe enough to have fun, to fall in love and to have a first kiss."
Queer Characters Are Center Stage in The Last of Us
Druckmann also elaborated that a driving mindset for the show is giving characters what they want most -- and then punishing them for it. This idea seemingly informs The Last of Us's depiction of queer characters across the board. "Here are [Ellie and Riley] who are both gay, and their sexuality is confusing to them and scary to them. The world in our show -- to remind everybody -- stops in 2003," the showrunner stated about Episode 7. "The revolution that we've gone through as a culture to become accepting of homosexuality and whatever we'd call non-heteronormative sexualities hasn't occurred… in this world, that stuff is still 'problematic' as they say."
Similarly, The Last of Us greatly expanded the game's minor characters Bill and Frank, making them an explicitly gay couple with a fully developed romance. Both men end up dying, which some viewers saw as playing into the problematic trope of Bury Your Gays. However, co-creator Craig Mazin argued that because Bill and Frank are able to spend years together and get to choose when they die, their situation is a best-case scenario in a post-apocalyptic world. "In the best of circumstances, you get what you get with Bill and Frank, which is a success," he said. "They win regardless of how it ends. They win. They have a happy ending."
Story beats surrounding queer relationships aren't the only changes the show's creative team has made in adapting the critically acclaimed survival horror game. During an earlier appearance on the podcast, Druckmann discussed the emphasis on intimately exploring Joel's psychological struggles, highlighting the different strengths between television and video game production.
The Last of Us depicts the journey of Joel, a smuggler, and Ellie, a teenager who appears to be the key to curing a mutant fungus outbreak that has taken over the world. Pedro Pascal brings Joel to life in the HBO show, while Bella Ramsey portrays Ellie.
New episodes of the series premiere on HBO on Sundays.
Source: HBO's The Last of Us Podcast, via Collider