Ahead of its highly anticipated premiere on April 13, HBO has been heavily promoting The Last of Us season 2. At a recent SXSW panel, the cast teased a bigger, more ambitious storyline for the second season and debuted a thrilling new trailer featuring new characters, new settings, and Tommy blasting a bloater with a flamethrower. Not only did this trailer give us our first glimpse of Tommy and Maria’s son; it also hinted — and the producers later confirmed — that season 2 will finally introduce spores to the world of the TV series.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Will Introduce Spores
The Producers Confirmed Spores At The Last Of Us' SXSW Panel
At SXSW, the team behind The Last of Us confirmed that season 2 will feature spores. They can be seen briefly in the new trailer when Ellie is approaching a clicker that’s grown into a wall; the air around it is filled with spores. In the games, spores are an airborne way for Cordyceps to infect unsuspecting new victims. Whenever spores are around, the characters have to put on their gas masks, and if their mask is broken by a fall or a nearby runner, then they breathe in the spores and turn.
When the first game teaches the player how to load and fire a gun, they have to decide whether to put a smuggler with a broken gas mask out of his misery. The smuggler has been crushed by falling debris, which has cracked his mask and let spores into his airways. He doesn’t want to spend eternity trapped in the body of a mindless mushroom zombie, so he begs Joel to kill him, and the player has to choose whether to grant his wish. This is arguably a more terrifying way to get infected than a mere bite.
Why There Weren't Spores In The Last Of Us Season 1
Gas Masks Would've Restricted The Actors' Emotional Expression
Season 1 didn’t feature spores, because they were deemed to be too unrealistic for the more grounded approach of the TV show. In real life, gas masks wouldn’t be effective against spores, because the spores would stick to people’s clothing and stay with them long after they left the spore-ridden area. Plus, the gas masks would’ve restricted the emotionality of the actors. They would’ve covered up Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s beautifully expressive faces. Leaving out spores meant that season 1 had to rework a couple of plot points from the game that directly involved spores.
Seeing Ellie breathe in spores with no consequences is what convinces Joel that she really is immune. The TV show got around this by having Ellie sustain a second bite at the museum, which similarly convinced Joel of her immunity. It’s a good thing that spores are finally being introduced in season 2, because they’re crucial to even more plot points in The Last of Us Part II, and it would’ve been even harder to figure out a way around them if the TV show stuck to its no-spore rule.
Why Spores Are So Important In The Last Of Us
It's Another Way Of Showing How Dangerous & Unforgiving This World Is
Spores might not sound like such an integral part of The Last of Us’ mythology, but they’re key to the worldbuilding. It’s another way of showing how completely Cordyceps has ravaged the world, and just how harsh and unforgiving this post-apocalyptic wasteland is. It’s yet another danger that the characters have to look out for. Having clusters of spores in every dark, enclosed space makes survival seem like even more of a miracle. Since the TV show has far fewer infected than the games, spores will go a long way toward making the world seem deadlier.
There are certain scenes in The Last of Us Part II that rely heavily on spores. In the subway sequence, Dina learns about Ellie’s immunity when she sees her breathing in spores. The TV show could’ve had Ellie get bitten again, but it already did that in season 1. In the hospital sequence, Ellie uses the fact that Nora is succumbing to a spore infection as a means to torture her. The torture wouldn’t be as effective if Nora wasn’t breathing in spores. HBO’s The Last of Us is making the right move by bringing in spores.
