Join Us At the End of the World

Does the prospect of possible future lesbian content warrant current excitement? Probably, if it’s the highly anticipated first trailer for “The Last of Us,” the new HBO post-apocalyptic series based on the hit video game series. Now, I know, I still have a hard time with major media based on amusement park rides and video games. But, as someone with a gamer wife, I do now appreciate that today’s video games have unmistakable storylines and real character progression, which gives them a definitive edge over the animatronics of a theme park ride.

Anyway. The new TLOU adaptation is already giving us some very The Walking Dead vibes, what with the end of the world caused by a humanity decimating infection (in this case, it’s a fungus that makes humans into murderous mushroom heads who are definitely not zombies). Pedro Pascal apparently can’t get enough of shepherding the universe’s underage charges across dangerous landscapes (hello, The Mandalorian) because he plays Joel, a smuggler who promises to take a teenage girl (Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey who we last saw as the little badass ever, Lady Lyanna Mormont). The original video game came out on Playstation in 2013, and was followed up by a successful sequel in 2020.

And that’s where the gay stuff comes into it. If you were on Tumblr anytime in 2020 you probably already know because of the endless sea of gifs, but in the sequel the story picks up by following a now more grown-up Ellie who is still fighting to survive in the post-apocalypse but now also happens to also have a girlfriend. And, as mentioned above, there were endless clips and videos and gifs of Ellie and her girlfriend Dina all over Tumblr. So the new series puts us in the unusual position of rooting for the sequel before we’ve ever seen the original. But any show that drops a surprise Melanie Lynskey on us has gotta be good and gay. Also, in case the Lynskey bona fides weren’t enough, the series also stars Anna Torv. Yes, here I am now officially rooting for a video game show to succeed. Come on, sequel, come on.