From January 16, 2023, the time has finally come: The Last of Us, the series adaptation of Naughty Dog’s video game series of the same name, will start on Sky and WOW. the long-awaited horror series Pedro Pascal sends grumpy smuggler Joel and Bella Ramsey as bright teenage Ellie through a dystopian vision of America’s future.
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after the outbreak of a fungal infection that turns people into the living dead. However, the infected only resemble classic zombies in their behavior, which are known from series such as The Walking Dead. What The Infected HBO Series so absolutely terrifyingis much deeper – as the stars and creators of the series now revealed during an interview day.
Pedro Pascal and Co. were “a shit scared” while shooting The Last of Us
Several journalists were able to ask questions about The Last of Us to the cast and those responsible behind the cameras. Movie pilot was there too. Leading actor Pedro Pascal had a clear answer on the subject of infected people: “They scared the shit out of me.” On the one hand, that was probably due to the fact that during the shoot Don’t rely purely on CGI effects was, which the actors got to see later. In an interview, The Mandalorian star reveals:
The design of these creatures, the different states in which they exist and their physical and visual form that we were in direct contact with, shooting, running from and fighting against – there was definitely little left to the imagination.
It was already clear in the trailers for the series: The infected look at least as scary as in The Last of Us games. As for the stars of the series though Another aspect that frightened me the most was the very real fungal infection behind the infected people. For Bella Ramsey a lot scarier than a more classic zombie story:
This is not a supernatural person who rises from the dead and turns into a man-eating monster. This happens through something that exists in our world: mushrooms. The idea that this is theoretically possible […] gives it a more real element, making it all that much more terrifying.Unlike The Walking Dead, the infected in The Last of Us are based on a real-life infection
HBO
The further the infection progresses, the less human those infected appear
In the games and the series, the infected human body is taken over by a certain type of fungus, the Cordyceps, also known as Kernkeule in German. the Parasite continues to grow in the body of the infected and ultimately controls their movements and behavior. The aim: to spread its spores as far as possible. In reality, the fungus mainly affects animals such as ants, butterflies or spiders.
Gabriel Luna, who plays Joel’s brother Tommy in The Last of Us, still hasn’t forgotten when he first heard about it:
I saw the National Geographic post many years ago where [die Serie] based. The one about the Zombie Ants. I always thought it was pretty rad and crazy that the fungus can override your motor functions, your own will, and force you to do things. You become a shell. The apocalypse breaks out differently in The Last of Us than in other horror series – and is therefore “more inevitable”
So, from the ground up, The Last of Us is more grounded in reality. “Grounded” as they say in English – no wonder video game developer Naughty Dog 2013 the Documentary on the making of the first The Last of Us game called exactly that. (Here you can see the documentary on YouTube.) However, the realism does not only refer to how the infected develop or behave.
For showrunner Craig Mazin, the way the infection eventually erupts is also different from other zombie shows. Nobody in the lab can think of anything here Test tube with a dangerous substance down. The cause of the infection comes from nature:
There isn’t an outbreak where we don’t first know what the cause is and then suddenly find out. Instead, there’s finally an eruption of something that’s been there all along. There is a certain inevitability inside that I find more interesting and true.
Whether the first season of The Last of Us will be more successful than the grand finale of The Walking Dead, remains to be seen. But the fact is: With this realistic apocalypse, not only the people in front of and behind the camera should get chills down their spines, but also the audience in front of the screens.
More The Last of Us in the podcast: The best series starts in January
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A new series year has begun and it’s time again for our monthly series preview in the Stream Browse podcast. You can find out in our overview which 20 starts you really shouldn’t miss in the streaming area this January. Also included: The Last of Us on Sky/WOW, Season 2 of Vikings: Valhalla on Netflix and the German True Crime response to Dahmer on Amazon.
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Is realism important to you in series like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead, or doesn’t it matter at all?