HBO
Editor’s Note: This article will contain spoilers for the season one premiere of The Last of Us
While The Last of Us has largely (so far) been a direct adaptation of the beloved 2013 video game, there have been a couple of deviations from the original story, most notably the haunting cold opening that featured a chilling conversation on a 1960s talk show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWiuvjTQJM
The scene, which features two doctors discussing the transmission of viruses and diseases, explains how a fungus such as cordyceps could, theoretically, overtake the human brain if the temperature of the climate were to increase, therefore forcing the fungus to mutate to be able to survive in internal temperatures above 94 degrees.
Fast forward to when the show opens in 2003 (when Joel Miller is 36 years old), and that’s exactly what wound up happening. But how? The flour — yes, the stuff you bake with, might hold the key.
Sarah Miller (Nico Parker) wanted her father Joel (Pedro Pascal) to buy pancake mix for his birthday breakfast. The Millers’ next-door neighbors, the Adlers, are hell-bent on giving them biscuits. Later, cookies and cakes get mentioned as well. This is a survival show with mushroom zombies, not The Great British Bake Off, so why does food get so much airtime?
There are a few reasons… but behind that character work lies a more sinister possibility: the possibility that contaminated food caused the deadly cordyceps outbreak. [via Mashable]
If the flour does wind up being a significant factor in the outbreak, that would represent a significant departure from the games, which did not feature any flour-based explanation for the zombie-creating fungus.
The Last of Us, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the lead roles of Joel and Ellie, respectively, is based on the video game franchise of the same name. The game was created by Naughty Dog founder Neil Druckmann, who co-wrote the first season of the HBO series with showrunner Craig Mazin.
In addition to Pascal and Ramsey, the series also stars Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, John Hanah, Merle Dandridge, Josh Brener, Christopher Heyerdahl, Brendan Fletcher, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, Lamar Johnson, Troy Baker, and more.
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