HBO's 'The Last of Us' Director Says You Need to 'Trick' Viewers to Watchg a Gay Love Story

Contents:

• HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE
• THE LAST OF US HBO TV SERI WRER CONFIRMS ‘ELLIE WILL BE GAY’
• HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ DIRECTOR SAYS YOU NEED TO ‘TRICK’ VIEWERS TO WATCHG A GAY LOVE STORY

HBO’S THE LAST OF US IMPROV ON THE GAME’S IMPLIED GAY ROMANCE

Given athat female ma characters gam were a rary until que recently, the fact that one of the biggt releas of the year, The Last of Us Part II, stars a gay woman feels like a signifint moment.

Ellie is, fact, the first gay star of any blockbter game (die velopers have been ls shy about explorg queer stori) and Ellie The Last of Us Part II. We journey through much of the game wh her girliend Da (played by Shannon Woodward); we see her experience homophobia and have awkward nversatns wh the people who re about is played by Ashley Johnson – a warm, wry and ngoly shy actor who had numero creds film and TV before landg a role 2013’s The Last of Us. “Playg a lead female character a game is already pretty ol, but the fact that she’s gay is even oler, for me.

”Most often vio gam, if a character is gay ’s bee you chose for them to be so.

THE LAST OF US HBO TV SERI WRER CONFIRMS ‘ELLIE WILL BE GAY’

Dpe a history of gay reprentatn that go back s – gay marriage was a thg The Sims long before most real-world untri – gam rarely have much to say about what ’s like to be queer real 2013’s The Last of Us, Ellie was a supportg character: the funny, sarstic teenage foil to gff, nflicted, beardy father figure Joel, who transported her across Ameri on a post-apolyptic road trip. “Whenever I’ve met fans at [nventns] there are still some people who ask: ‘Ellie’s not gay, right? “Ellie is VERY gay.

Bill is gay the game, but ’s referenced so vaguely that plenty of players missed . The cisn to keep muted, hted at a sgle le of dialogue and a hidn letter, was both praised and cricized — was easy to overlook, but also avoid a lot of gay-character trop, and allowed Bill to be a human and not “a maniftatn of sexualy, ” as Polygon’s Danielle Rien put at the time. The game’s storyle don’t avoid trop altogether, though: It was cricized for “buryg s gays.

Speakg of The Last of Us TV seri at HBO, wrer/producer Craig Maz replied to a tweet om one of the fans who requted to “keep the gay, gay, ” to which he Maz replied, “You have my word.

HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ DIRECTOR SAYS YOU NEED TO ‘TRICK’ VIEWERS TO WATCHG A GAY LOVE STORY

HBO’s h vio-game adaptatn seri The Last of Us took an unexpected tour to gay terrory s most recent episo, focg on a buddg romance between the characters played by actors Nick Offerman and Murry Bartlett. In a recent terview, the episo director said viewers sometim need to be tricked to watchg a gay love story. Director Peter Hoar, who is openly gay, spoke to the science-foced se Inverse about makg the show.