The Last of Us

The Last of Us will only return if Naughty Dog knows exactly the right story to tell, says HBO series cocreator and game creative director Neil Druckmann.

If we can’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the end.” “Which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. “They have supported us every step of the way to follow our passions — meaning that just because something is successful, people think there’s all this pressure and we have to make a sequel.

PlayStation developer Naughty Dog has ruled out another Uncharted instalment and hinted it could still move on from The Last of Us. Despite recent rumours ...

Could the developer move on from The Last of Us after just two games? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter. All I could say is, at Naughty Dog we’re very, very privileged that our publisher is Sony — which means Sony funds our games, supports us, and we’re owned by Sony.

The Last of Us Episode 2, directed by Neil Druckmann, utilizes camerawork to amp up the tension of the clicker museum sequence.

It screeches and leaps upon him, pinning him to the ground and knocking Ellie down as well. There is a close-up of the horrifying clicker as it attempts to bite at Joel and Ellie, followed by tight shots of Ellie and Joel struggling to push it away. Joel is only saved by a noise from nearby that distracts the clicker, allowing him to crouch and try to find his companions. The shaky cam goes from a slight wobble to a constant jostle as Joel wrestles with a ravenous clicker. The camera follows Joel closely over his shoulder and reveals the source of the noise: Ellie, who is crouching behind a nearby table, now the target of the clicker's search. Joel knocks over a bust of Ben Franklin to cause a crash that disorients one of the clickers and buys him time to hide again. This begins the trio's descent into hell, as they attempt to evade the stalking clickers silently, knowing that a direct interaction with one could mean death. Whenever Joel swings the light around to inspect the area, this creates an inherent worry that the viewer is about to see something horrifying hiding in the dark. The creature has fungal growths over its eyes and scalp, blinding it, but it still has the ability to echolocate its prey with horrifying shrieks. The camera hangs close behind Ellie as the characters travel through the halls, making the viewer feel like they are third in line in this procession through an ersatz haunted house. [HBO](https://collider.com/tag/hbo/)'s [The Last of Us](https://collider.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) feature gripping portrayals of violence and post-apocalyptic horror. [to inspect a cordyceps sample](https://collider.com/last-of-us-hbo-episode-2-opening-scene-cordyceps/); the beautiful high contrast framing of the first bonding moment between Joel ( [Pedro Pascal](https://collider.com/tag/pedro-pascal/)) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), which creates a safe bright spot for them amid the surrounding darkness.

Humans will probably never face a fungal apocalypse, but in the insect world, mind-controlling fungi can pose a serious threat.

Of the 1.5 to 5 million fungus species, [humans only become ill](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-fungal-pathogens-are-the-most-harmful-to-human-health-180981035/) from a few hundred of them, which mostly threaten immunocompromised people, writes the Post. The Last of Us also suggests that part of what primed the planet for the fungal takeover is its warming temperatures. The show posits that as fungi adapt to a warmer planet, they could be better suited to infect humans. So, they have to come up with specialized types of compounds that can kill the fungi without harming the host.” [fungal infections](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fungi-that-cause-lung-infections-may-be-spreading-across-the-us-180981189/) in humans are relatively understudied and difficult to treat. Most fungi prefer temperatures lower than those of the human body, de Bekker tells Vox. “Fungi are more closely related to animals than they are plants,” Kasson tells the Ringer. The apocalyptic takeover of the human species by a mind-controlling fungal pathogen is implausible, Then, the fungus grows from the ant’s head, enabling it to effectively spread spores and infect more hosts. For one, the pathogen-carrying human hosts are not “undead”—they’re still alive. But it [leaves the ant’s brain intact](https://www.inverse.com/science/last-of-us-cordyceps), allowing it to manipulate the insect’s behavior. In typical zombie apocalypse stories, like The Walking Dead, World War Z and Train to Busan, a virus quickly transforms people into bloodthirsty monsters.

Bella Ramsay and Anna Torv as Ellie and Tess in a still image from HBO's The. Tess's story in HBO's The Last of Us had some major changes from the game. ( ...

And Joel has to absorb the reality of that at the moment. In the game, Joel starts to believe in Ellie's immunity when he sees her breathing spores and is fine. And we can see the difference," Mazin said. We've left the quarantine zone and that led to this other version where she's giving an opening to escape to Joel and Ellie by blowing up a bunch of infected." In the video game, being bitten by an infected still means certain death (for everyone except Ellie). Dark and dank smuggling tunnels are filled with spores, making the journey even more treacherous, especially for those without Ellie's immunity. "They're connected, and it's scarier when it feels like they're working as a unit than as individuals. Tess promises she'll buy Joel and Ellie time, and the pair leave her to a fatal showdown with the heavily armoured FEDRA soldiers. That is, if you could call the one of the grossest kisses on television ever a journey. Why the change then? You can see the game version below: It's disturbing and it's violative.

Naughty Dog Co-President Neil Druckmann said the studio "moved on" from Uncharted, but wasn't so definitive about The Last of Us Part III.

He also [confirmed in April 2021](https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/04/28/neil-druckmann-confirms-the-last-of-us-3-outline-is-written-well-see?amp) that he had an outline for a possible sequel, but made sure to say it was a “story that [Naughty Dog] is not making” even though he “[hoped] one day [it] can see the light of day.” “Our process is the same thing we did when we did Part II, which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. Eventually, the developer came up with a story it wanted to tell, so it decided to go forward. “They have supported us every step of the way to follow our passions — meaning that just because something is successful, people think there’s all this pressure and we have to make a sequel. Druckmann used The Last of Us Part II to prove his point. Naughty Dog is known for many franchises, most recently Uncharted and The Last of Us.

The Last of Us' writer and creative director Neil Druckmann has indicated that The Last of Us Part 3 might not happen in a recent interview.

While some would be disappointed by the news that The Last of Us Part 3 might not materialize, there is the argument to be made that The Last of Us Part 2 brought Joel, Ellie, and Abby's story to its natural conclusion with Ellie breaking the cycle of revenge. It would appear that Naughty Dog's parent company, Sony isn't pressuring the studio into making a third part either, despite the success of The Last of Us franchise. Part of Druckmann's statement about Sony's support of the studio confirmed that Naughty Dog has left behind its other major IP, Uncharted. Naughty Dog is currently working on a multiplayer game after The Last of Us: Part 2's multiplayer mode expanded to such a massive scale that it became a standalone title with its own story and a new cast of characters, but Druckmann explained that there are no plans for a third mainline entry in the franchise. As a result, an eventual The Last of Us Part 3 felt inevitable and potentially already in the works, however, The Last of Us' writer and co-director Neil Druckmann has indicated that this might not be the case. Since the saga began in 2013, The Last of Us has been largely praised for its storytelling which followed complex, morally gray characters Joel and Ellie as they try to survive a post-apocalyptic world in the wake of a fungal cordyceps outbreak.

Based on the acclaimed PlayStation video games from Naughty Dog, HBO's The Last of Us follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they make their ...

As episode 2 of The Last of Us makes very clear, a small number of clickers is enough to present a real challenge to even an assault-rifle-wielding Joel, highlighting just how formidable they really are. Spoilers ahead for The Last Of Us Episode 2.](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) [](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) [The Last of Us](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) star Anna Torv explains how episode 2's tense clicker fight was brought to life and why it was even scary to film. In most other zombie movies and shows, including Dawn of the Dead and The Walking Dead, a virus is responsible for turning people into flesh-eating monsters, but The Last of Us's infection actually stems from a fungus. [CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/the-last-of-us-tess-actress-talks-filming-unbelievable-clickers-introduction-with-real-actors), Torv breaks down what the fight with the [clickers in The Last of Us episode 2](https://screenrant.com/last-of-us-show-clicker-design-video/) was like to film, revealing that the infected creatures weren't just terrifying on-screen, but in real life as well! Not only are some viewers already familiar with clickers and the other infected forms as a result of playing “So you're standing in the corner and then this huge - they're real tall, big guys - this big, tall guy comes in going - [Clicker noise] - to you, and it's dark, and you're like, 'I don't want to look at this.' So it was not difficult to be like - [gasps] - to get the fright.

Neil Druckmann has explained the logic behind the piano frog that shows up in The Last of Us's second episode.

The Last of Us is based on the video game of the same name that was originally released in 2013. The Last of Us is set twenty years after the fall of humanity due to a zombie-like apocalypse. In a quick shot, a frog was seen sitting on a piano and this “piano frog” quickly became a fan favorite.

For fans of the critically acclaimed game, The Last of Us is already the new gold standard for video game adaptations. Scarred audience members may remember ...

As one Twitter user [wrote](https://twitter.com/feryl__streep/status/1617808827587649536), “He stole the show.” Frog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80UjzxfNugs) minus the ragtime singing. [behind-the-scenes image](https://twitter.com/Neil_Druckmann/status/1617469323450404864) on Twitter of a bird being placed behind a fake frog, Druckmann revealed, “Piano frog wouldn’t be a thing… [second episode](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42594936/the-last-of-us-episode-2-recap/), a tiny frog jumps on a piano as its hind legs accidentally press some keys. Instead of reinventing the wheel, [HBO](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/g26293745/best-hbo-series/)’s The Last of Us is giving us a near frame-by-frame recreation—but what the series does add as window dressing has only delighted fans even more. [The Last of Us](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42443510/the-last-of-us-review-hbo/) creator Neil Druckmann have gone to insanely meticulous lengths to make the television series resemble its source material.

The opening scenes of The Last of Us show the global scale of the outbreak without getting bogged down in exposition.

The time jumps have only aided in the series' storytelling thus far, and it's interesting to imagine what will be accomplished by continuing to play with this world's timeline as the season progresses. It explained exactly how this fungus could take over, how deadly it could be, and how unlikely this idea was for most of the people who heard about it in this world. Opening these episodes with smooth exposition and information about how the virus began from experts’ perspectives helps to immerse us in the world of the series. This scene showed the potential for the fungus to take over, even though it was far enough in the past that it was being discussed in an entirely hypothetical sense. The first scene of Episode 2 shows us the start of the virus’ spread on a global sense and just how extremely dire this situation was right off the bat from the perspective of the person who could best understand it. Of course, there’s a lot of effort and skill that goes into accomplishing this as quickly and smoothly as they have thus far, but there is one choice, in particular, that has had a major effect on what viewers have come to understand about the pandemic at the story's core.

The fungus which causes the pandemic is based on the real-life Cordyceps zombie fungus that infects insects. Insects infected with Cordyceps have little control ...

[the brain](https://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/fungal.html). [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com) under a Creative Commons license. The number of people becoming ill with a serious fungal infections has been Many serious fungal infections begin in the lungs, after inhaling fungal spores in the air. Fungal infections tend also not to spread between people because of the way infections start. This may increase the number of species which can cause serious infections in humans. Most fungal infections aren’t like other infectious diseases, in that someone infected with one usually can’t give it to someone else. This is one reason why most fungal infections in humans tend to stay on the skin where it’s cooler (think athletes foot and ringworm). But a few species of fungi grow in warmer temperatures – and these are the ones that cause life-threatening infections. And just as one of the characters in The Last of Us suggests, climate change may present new problems. It’s also why only a small number of fungi are able to cause infections in humans relative to the size of the fungal kingdom. The show depicts a post-apocalyptic world where society has collapsed due to the outbreak of a dangerous, brain-controlling fungal infection that turns humans into hostile, cannibalistic “zombies”.

In the game, food sources and spores are vectors for the disease, alongside the more traditional zombie thriller method of a bite. Given that spores and gas ...

Given that spores and gas masks would be difficult to incorporate into a TV scenario, the disease in the adaptation – a mind-controlling fungus called Cordyceps – becomes more of a physical, visible enemy. From what we’ve seen so far, the core aspects (and even some frames) have been translated directly from game to TV, but one crucial element of the story is different in the adaptation: the very nature of the infection and how it is transmitted. Released to widespread acclaim in 2013, it became the studio’s runaway success story and cemented its place as an industry leader when it comes to narrative storytelling in games.

If you're not in a country covered by HBO Max or a regional streaming service like Sky Atlantic, you'll need a VPN to watch the TV series. ExpressVPN and ...

If you did, what do you think of the show? Although this places it out of reach of many people, you can still stream the show from anywhere, so long as you have a good streaming VPN like Once you’ve installed the VPN client, you can launch it and log in to your account. In fact, according to our tests, it’s even faster than ExpressVPN and is the Once downloaded, run the file and follow the instructions to install the VPN client. We’re using ExpressVPN for these instructions, but any VPN capable of unblocking HBO Max will do the trick. If you’re wondering where to watch The Last of Us, you’ve come to the right place, as we’ll walk you through what streaming platforms and regions it’s available in. If you’re in a country covered by HBO Max, then watching The Last of Us online is easy. Unfortunately, you’ll need a payment method from an accepted country in order to sign up (and pay for) an account. However, if you’re located somewhere where HBO Max isn’t offered, you’ll need to use a VPN to log in to your account. After several failed movies and years in development hell, The Last of Us is finally getting the adaptation fans have been waiting for. The TV series will have a limited run of nine episodes, with the first episode having premiered on Jan.

Here is more about the Cordyceps fungus shown in The Last of Us television show. Is the fungal outbreak possible in real life? Read on.

Answer: The Cordyceps fungus enters the body of a host insect through spores and feeds on its soft tissues and then grows long stem-like structures which protrude outside. In fact, Healthline states that Cordyceps has a lot of benefits and is used in One of its major health benefits for humans is believed to be a catalytic role to promote the body’s production molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It is a “genus of parasitic fungi that grows on the larvae of insects,” says The Cordyceps supplements available also use synthetically grown variants of the fungus as it is extremely expensive and difficult to cultivate. The fungus is predominantly found in tropical forest regions. When it attacks the host insect, the Cordyceps fungus eliminates its soft tissues and grows long slender stems that grow outside the host’s body. Right at the beginning of The Last of Us, a speech by epidemiologist Dr Neuman (John Hannah) on the horrors of the microbe sets the stage for what’s going to come. HBO’s The Last of Us series, released in 2023, based on the popular survival game of the same name, is a masterpiece from Craig Mazin. The limited series inclines on the lines of an apocalyptic world, where a deadly outbreak caused by the Cordyceps fungus is wreaking havoc. What initially starts out as a simple rescue job begins to snowball into a brutal task as they both have to traverse through the US, and depend on each other for their best shot at surviving the fungal outbreak. So, naturally, the thought of what a fungal outbreak would be like has cropped up several times.