By Frankie-Robin Cooper
I definitely think it’s no coincidence that filming for The Last of Us on HBO Max began in July 2021, a little over a year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. When TLOU was released on HBO Max in 2024, popular culture accepted it with open arms. Not only was the show an instant hit, but interest in the original narrative from Naughty Dog’s video game was reignited. This is because just as acts of terrorism increased the marketability of superhero movies in America, COVID-19 increased the marketability of pandemic-centered films. The Last of Us is absolutely a worst-case scenario. The COVID-19 pandemic was absolutely terrible and people died, but people weren’t turned into zombies or carted off to Quarantine Zones, begging the question–why is a generation traumatized by a pandemic interested in the pandemic narratives that are so much worse than what they experienced? I think that TLOU enthusiasts are interested in the artistic portrayal of what they experienced during the pandemic. Emotions that are difficult to deal with often get channeled into art as a method of coping.
At the same time, lines that were written pre-COVID, i.e. the ones that were in the video game and adapted word-for-word into the show, take on new meaning post-covid. The fear that Sarah shows when she continuously questions whether she, her father, and her uncle are sick is a sentiment that many people who survived COVID-19 can relate to. Before the wide-scale production of at-home COVID-19 tests, there wasn’t a quick and easy way to tell if you were infected with COVID. The symptoms of COVID-19 are anything from a cough to high fever, or you could be asymptomatic and show no symptoms at all but still have the power to infect people. There was a real fear of infecting friends and loved ones unknowingly.
Another explanation is that people like to see love thriving amidst isolation. The side-plot of Bill and Frank’s love story was not only heartwarming but refreshing. Bill is…a prepper. He makes himself a bunker and isolates himself from everyone else as the world crumbles and ends around him (And he has a great time while doing it!). Bill’s isolation is reminiscent of stay-at-home-style quarantine, but unlike most people he’s just fine being away from everyone. “I used to hate the world, and I was happy when everyone died,” he writes to Joel in Episode 3. With the arrival of Frank, Bill begins to realize how lonely he has been. He lets Frank into his life and they live a beautiful life together, be it in isolation.
Frank pulling Bill back into the social world when he insists that he allows friends to visit the bunker is also relatable to fans who had to reacclimate to social life once the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had passed. It’s a smaller part of their story, but relevant to a post-COVID-19 world nonetheless. Another appeal of TLOU in a post-COVID world is that both highlight how cruel humanity is when under the influence of fear and stress, and how resilient they can be when they work together despite tremendous terror. “Joel and I aren’t good people,” Tess says to Ellie right off the bat in episode 2, “We’re doing this for us because apparently, you’re worth something.” Ellie will go on to discover not only Joel’s violent past, but the massacres that occurred during the onset of Cordyceps. Despite this discovery, Ellie goes on to form a real bond with Joel, and through their cooperation they are able to traverse great distances and overcome great odds.
Massacres did not occur in America during the COVID-19 pandemic, but people did hoard toilet paper. Yet despite this, many people became resilient through the support of the people around them. TLOU is a show centered around how that resilience can endure even in the hardest times. That message alone makes it highly palatable to a generation that has been traumatized by a pandemic.