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

Contents:

• THE LAST OF US HBO TV SERI WRER CONFIRMS ‘ELLIE WILL BE GAY’
• THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY
• HBO’S ‘THE LAST OF US’ DIRECTOR SAYS YOU NEED TO ‘TRICK’ VIEWERS TO WATCHG A GAY LOVE STORY
• IS ELLIE GAY IN THE LAST OF US TV SHOW?

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

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.

THE LAST OF US’ GEO GAY LOVE STORY COULD NOT BE MORE TIMELY

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. 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. 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. What we got stead was a psule episo, and a particularly bracg one, given the show’s opprsively bleak mood th far: The hour is dited to the love story of Bill and Frank, a gay uple who—due ially to Bill’s skills as a bunker-stockg, booby-trappg, Don’t Tread on Me survivalist—manage to build a largely happy existence together an abandoned and eventually fortified ral hamlet for almost 20 years.

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

Wh Bill and Frank, we were given a portra of love—specifilly gay love—that feels surprisg and urgent. In our own 2023, we are not exactly lackg for media imag of whe gay men.

IS ELLIE GAY IN THE LAST OF US TV SHOW?

For one thg, we see gay sire portrayed all s plexy, but wh a touch as light as a breeze playg through curtas. Bill’s is not a “type” of gay man I n say I’ve ever seen mastream media before, and watchg him slowly reveal and epen that aspect of himself wh Frank’s help—sexually, y (Hollywood: more hairy bear love scen please!

But Bill and Frank create somethg else, a ltle oasis of their own that’s regnizably gay, full of quiet bety and joys the size of new strawberri. Frank wants to fix up the block and some of the “not stupid” shops—the we and furnure stor, the clothg boutique—bee he hop they might one day have unfected guts (which they eventually do, the form of Joel and Ts), but really bee makg thgs nice, pecially when nicens isn’t valued, is one of the great gay llgs. As an echo of the gay experience wh AIDS, is, as veteran activist Peter Staley put a Facebook post, a ftg tribute to the “tenr love & bravery gay men summoned when facg ath durg the plague years, cludg those who did so on their own terms.

How powerful, then, to see not only a gay uple given an entire hour of a marquee show, but a gay uple who are held up as the keepers of civilizatn, as stewards of bety, as emblems of human digny and possibily. Acrdg to crics who have seen the show, we're gettg a whole lot more of The Last of Us' gay characters than we thought.The Last of Us follows Joel and Ellie as they travel across a post-apolyptic Ameri tryg to avoid fung-fected zombi.