The Last of Us Season Two is nearly here, and the cast and crew seized the opportunity to reveal new details about the highly anticipated series during their SXSW panel. While the first season was universally praised by critics and fans alike and was even hailed as the best video game adaptation ever made, there were still areas that could have been improved. The live-action adaptation has been soft on the action, and the showrunners had to cut corners, such as shortcutting the story and removing key elements like spores.
Game director Neil Druckmann and series showrunner Craig Mazin confirmed that fans will see this toxic gas in the show, and for good reason. Despite removing it from the first season, which made the show slightly inaccurate, it is better late than never, and the HBO team hints at a unique way that this version stands out from the source material.
The Last of Us Season Two Will Finally Feature Spores
One of the few issues some fans had with The Last of Us Season One was the lack of spores and gas masks. In the game, Joel and Ellie must go through a few areas infested with spore clouds, and while it doesn’t affect gameplay, it adds a sense of vulnerability to characters who aren’t immune from the Cordyceps virus. Others viewed the omission of this feature from the first season as a mistake; however, the HBO team felt differently, especially since this would mean Pedro Pascal’s face would be covered.
While Pascal is no stranger to playing hardcore characters, he spent the majority of his time on The Mandalorian with his face covered by a helmet, and this is something Mazin and Druckmann wanted to avoid. Another reason is that covering Pascal’s face is like removing an asset to drive up viewership. During the SXSW panel, around the 35:11 timestamp, Mazin confirmed that spores are coming to the show, followed by Druckmann’s reasoning.
The live-action show is a great adaptation, but this doesn’t mean the showrunners must follow everything without making creative changes. Adapting The Last of Us into a television series is a great entry point for casual viewers to step into this world and a chance for the game creators to make changes they couldn’t with the source material. Druckmann claims that everything around the show is involved in the drama and storytelling; perhaps this means not everything in the game can be adapted and vice versa.
The first season introduced a new feature of a hive mind that was not in the game, and this was the alternative to the spores. With the five-year time jump from the season finale, perhaps this is the show’s way of telling that the virus has evolved and can be transmitted as an airborne cloud rather than being bitten by an infected.
The Last of Us Fans Are Eager to See Spores in Live-Action
Adding spores into season two may not be a bad idea, and this elevates the stakes a little higher for the characters. This opens more opportunities for action sequences involving the infected in an enclosed area and a step closer to feeling immersed as if fans were playing the game on a PlayStation.
Spores are another great way to showcase Ellie’s immunity, which the first season desperately lacked. While viewers are well aware of her condition, there is no way to show it other than surviving another bite, which they did in episode 2. Ellie’s immunity became her greatest asset in the controversial sequel, and including spores in season two indicates that the showrunners are leaning toward the source material without creative restraint.
For more Thumb Wars coverage, check out our take on why some fans are upset about the shocking opening of Daredevil: Born Again and how The Last of Us Season Two will stand apart from the original game.
Rouvin Josef Quirimit is a Content Writer, an avid gamer (on his PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch), and film enthusiast. He was fortunate to grow up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was enamored by the storytelling of a shared universe full of heart and spectacle. His love for movies led him to great single-player games and he intends to cover major franchises for years to come!
