From fungi to zombies, The Last of Us puts you on the edge of your seat. Based on a 2013 video game, on January 15th, 2023 writers took the story to television.

The video game was known for its astounding advances in digital animation, but it included something that had never been seen before: a storyline. Creators wrote scripts and hired voice actors to bring the characters to life, connecting them to viewers.

Eric Mickens, art teacher and proud fan of The Last of Us video game, said, “It was rare to see in a video game that you could develop such a connection to the characters.”

The HBO series follows two main characters, Joel played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie played by Bella Ramsey. It began when a contagious virus called Cordyceps leaked into a flour plant in Jakarta, Indonesia. Cordyceps dates back to a fungus. This flour was then sold in grocery stores across the world, eventually leading to a global outbreak. Whether developing the illness from a bite or spores from contaminated food, it takes two days to attack your nervous system and cause you to lose control of your sanity. This is when the infected become zombies.

This begs the question: could a pandemic like The Last of Us happen in real life? In short, thankfully no.

Broomfield biology teacher Carrie Nitchoff said, “Fortunately, in real life, fungi wouldn’t be able to do that. We don’t have the conditions in our DNA that they have to be a natural host for the virus.”

Fans of both the video game and the series are raving about this show. “It is an amazing show, it has so many great moments and characters that you feel emotionally attached to only after watching them for like half an hour,” said Ev Lew (‘26).

According to Collider, The Last of Us currently has the largest number of viewers for an HBO series. Standing at the colossal amount of about 29 million viewers per episode. To put that into perspective, that is nearly the same amount as the population of Texas.

So, don’t be the last of us to watch the show. Grab some popcorn and a cozy blanket and enjoy The Last of Us!

The Last of Us airs Sunday nights at 7 pm MT on HBO and HBO Max.