Some viewers of The Last of Us series will have noticed that the fungus that turns people into will-less monsters works differently than in the game, and there don't seem to be any spores. We'll explain how exactly the fungus works and why you haven't seen any spores yet.
What it's about: The game and the series are set 20 years after a fungus has started to infect people worldwide, turning them into aggressive, will-less zombies. But there's one big difference between the game and the series – the fungus works differently, and we'll tell you why.
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Spoiler Warning: If you haven't played The Last of Us or watched the first two episodes, the following article may contain some spoilers. So only read on if you don't mind these spoilers.
The problem in The Last of Us is that the disease that afflicts humanity is not from viruses or bacteria. If it were, it might be possible to contain it with vaccines or antibiotics. But fungi are not so easy to treat and control.
The series starts with the viewer being shown a clip from a TV program about how fungi can render living creatures willless for propagation and multiplication. However, the body temperature in humans is too high for the fungus to survive.
Years later, however, the fungus seems to leap the evolutionary ladder due to climate change and now defies higher temperatures. Because of this, civilization collapses, and a pandemic breaks out. To clarify the differences between the game and the series, we will first compare both versions of the fungus.
In the game, the fungus works in such a way that it is transmitted through spores. This is the seed of the fungus. The spores settle in the respiratory tract of the victims and slowly turn the host into a clicker. This is why people in the game often wear masks to protect themselves from the deadly spores. Additionally, the fungus is transmittable through bites, which befits a true zombie pathogen.
This is what the spurs looked like in the game. Anyone who does not want to become a will-less zombie must wear a mask.
In the HBO series The Last of Us, people don't wear masks or protect themselves from spores. The reason is that there are no spores. The pathogen spreads primarily through bites. However, there is another change. The fungus functions in a kind of network. The fungus connects the infected people in a kind of network. Tess explains in episode 2 that you can step on the part of the fungus, for example, and a mile away, infected people will be awakened by it and drawn to you.
Where are the Infected? But that rarely happens in the tv show. Fans are disappointed by the lack of zombies or infected, but as FlickLuster explains this is because the producers Druckman and Mazin did not want to overuse the infected. They are supposed to be that scare factor, they are dangerous and showing them to often makes them uninteresting and boring.
But why are the spores missing from The Last of Us series? The reason is quite simple, and creator Neil Druckmann said early on in production that there would be no spurs. The series is meant to be as realistic as possible.
If the fungus is primarily transmitted through the air by spores, the actors would theoretically have to wear masks at all times. But even if Pedro Pascal is in the cast, we don't have a series like Mandalorian, where it makes sense to cover the actors' faces with a mask. This would cause important information and especially emotions to be lost.
Spoilers for Episode 2: The spore theme is directly addressed in the episode. When Joel, Ellie, and Tess set out to bring Ellie to the Fireflies. In the process, they walk through the city reclaimed by nature, and Ellie asks the others if there are super-infected people who shoot fungal spores on you. To which Tess replies, “Shit, I hope not!”.
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