12 Biggest Differences Between “The Last of Us” TV Series and Video Games

The timeline

The Last of Us video game series kicks off in 2013, eventually time-jumping to 2033.

Meanwhile, the HBO show begins in 2003 in its series premiere, then jumps to post-pandemic 2023 in season 1. Season 2 takes place at the end of 2028 and goes into 2029.

The pacing is also slightly altered for the TV adaptation. Show co-creator Neil Druckmann — who co-created and wrote The Last of Us games — told TheWrap that the changes are to keep fans of both mediums entertained.

“Because we don’t have the interactive element [in the show that we do in the games], there’s certain other techniques that we have to do to keep the pacing going,” he said.

The spreading of cordyceps

In The Last of Us games, cordyceps can be spread merely from inhaling spores from the fungus.

But in the show, infection occurs through bites or scratches from the Infected. (Ellie — who has immunity to infection — is the only exception.) The creators did this for practical reasons.

“Part of the issue with the spores is that you run into them quite a bit in the game, although not as much as people think, and if there were that many spores and they were airborne, that infection’s gonna go even faster,” Mazin explained to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s hard to imagine how anyone escapes it, and people would probably be wearing masks all the time. In the game, the second you leave a spore space, you’re like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! Get a mile away.’ ”

Still, Mazin said that spores may come into play eventually on the show. “I don’t necessarily think we’ve eliminated spores from the universe of our show,” he said. “We just haven’t gotten there yet. It’s possible that they may come back.”

There are several new characters

The first new character introduced in the series was Ratna Pertiwi (Christine Hakim) in season 1, episode 2, “Infected.” In the show, Pertiwi — a mycology professor at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta — informed authorities that there is no cordyceps vaccine and advised them to bomb the city.

Season 1 also introduces fans to a new villain: Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey). Kathleen, the leader of a rebel group on the hunt for Sam (Keivonn Woodard) and Henry (Lamar Johnson), never appears in the game — instead, a group referred to as the Hunters are searching for the brothers.

Two new minor characters are introduced in season 1, episode 6: Marlon (Graham Greene) and Florence (Elaine Miles), two survivors living in the Wyoming wilderness.

Meanwhile, in season 2, Joel is seen going to therapy with Gail (Catherine O’Hara), a character who is completely original to the series. In the show, Gail was married to Eugene (Joe Pantoliano, who will appear in flashbacks in later episodes), a marijuana farmer whom Joel killed.

Eugene does not appear in the show or video games. However, in the game, players learn that his arc was completely different: Eugene abandoned his family to join the Fireflies and serve with Tommy (Gabriel Luna). He became close with Dina and taught her about electronics. Perhaps most importantly, Eugene died of a stroke at age 73 — not killed by anyone else or by the Infected.

Another season 2 original character is Benjamin (Ezra Agbonkhese), Maria (Rutina Wesley) and Tommy’s young son. He doesn’t appear in the games at all.

Tess’ death

In both The Last of Us game and the series, Tess (Anna Torv) gets bitten by an Infected when she, Joel and Ellie are at the state house. In the show — just as in the games — Tess urges Joel and Ellie to go on without her when they realize she was bitten.

However, Tess’s final sacrifice for Ellie and Joel is different. In the video game, Tess dies in a gunfight with FEDRA soldiers infiltrating the Capitol building. In the series, a swarm of Infected attack the building in search of the uninfected humans. After Joel and Ellie flee, Tess blows up the building, killing herself and the Infected inside.

Bill and Frank’s relationship

The love story between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) is much rosier in the HBO show than it is in The Last of Us video game.

In the video game, Bill is alive and alone when Ellie and Joel arrive at his home. When the group seeks refuge in a house close by, they find a body: It’s Frank, who died by suicide after learning he was infected with cordyceps. Players learn that Bill and Frank — who were partners — had a nasty fight, with Frank subsequently hating Bill until his death.

Additionally, Bill’s relationship with Joel is far more transactional in the video game. He owes Joel favors, and after eventually finding and giving Joel a car battery, they agree that they’re “square.” Bill then tells him, “Get the f— out of my town.” In the game series, it’s assumed that Bill is still alive when Ellie, Joel and Tess leave.

In the TV show, Bill and Frank’s romantic relationship is explored outright, from their initial meeting to their ultimate deaths by suicide — Frank is dying of an untreated terminal illness, and Bill doesn’t want to live without him.

When Joel and Ellie arrive at the house, they find a note from Bill describing how Frank made his life worth living, with Bill urging Joel to care for Tess the way he cared for Frank.

Mazin suggested this change to explore some of the show’s themes, including “a love that can be very protective and violent and dangerous.”

“There’s this lovely thread that indicated this hint of a relationship between Bill and Frank in the game,” Mazin told Business Insider. “I just suggested to Neil that maybe we pull that thread and we take it in a different direction in terms of the way it was depicted in the game, and use it to show the passage of time and use it to explore some of these themes that are so important to the length of the show.”

Pittsburgh is swapped for Kansas City

In The Last of Us video game, Joel and Ellie are with Sam and Henry in Pittsburgh, Pa. In the HBO show, however, that location is swapped for Kansas City, Mo.

The change was merely for logistical reasons, Mazin explained in the show’s companion podcast. The series is largely shot in Canada, and it was hard to make those areas resemble the Pennsylvania city.

“What it came down to was, the ‘Pittsburgh-ness’ of Pittsburgh wasn’t necessarily important,” Mazin said. “We had certain environments we knew would shoot in, because we were shooting in Alberta, largely around Calgary [and] a little bit in Edmonton. And it looked closer to Kansas City. It was just harder to manufacture Pittsburgh in that place.”

Ellie and Riley’s story

In both the show and video game, Ellie and her best friend/crush Riley (Storm Reid) are bitten while hanging out in a mall. But there are key differences in how the incident goes down.

In The Last of Us: Left Behind video game and The Last of Us: American Dreams comic book series, Ellie and Riley encounter a horde of Infected at the mall; meanwhile, in the show, they’re attacked by a single Infected.

Before they’re attacked in the video game and comics, Ellie and Riley play a fighting game similar to Mortal Kombat called The Turning at the mall’s arcade. In season 1, episode 7, Ellie and Riley instead play Mortal Kombat II.

David’s character

In season 1, episode 8, “When We Are in Need,” Ellie encounters David (Scott Shepherd) and James (Troy Baker) while she’s hunting for food for Joel, who’s wounded.

Much of Ellie’s encounter with David and James in the show is loyal to the game, but there are a few other key changes: In the show, David attempts to sexually assault Ellie, which doesn’t explicitly happen in the video game.

Additionally, in the game, the steakhouse fire begins when a lantern falls over, whereas in the show, Ellie hurls a piece of firewood at David, which then ignites the building’s curtains.

In The Last of Us game, Ellie stabs David to death and doesn’t stop attacking his corpse until Joel pries her off of him. In the show, Joel doesn’t catch up to Ellie until she’s fleeing from the burning restaurant.

Ellie’s immunity

In The Last of Us video games, Ellie’s immunity is never actually explained, which adds to the drama and emotion associated with Joel murdering the researchers who planned to kill her to find a cure for the cordyceps infection.

In the HBO series, however, fans see flashbacks of Ellie’s mother, Anna (played by Ashley Johnson, who voices Ellie in the games) giving birth. An Infected bites Anna before she’s able to cut Ellie’s umbilical cord. Researchers think this may be the root of Ellie’s immunity.

“Our doctor, he thinks that the cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth,” Marlene (Merle Dandridge) tells Joel in season 1, episode 9, “Look for the Light.” “He’s going to remove it from her, multiply the cells in a lab, produce those chemical messengers and then we can give it to everyone. He thinks it could be a cure.”

Dina and Joel’s relationship

In the video game The Last Of Us Part II, the player never actually sees Joel and Dina interact. In the HBO series, Dina (Isabela Merced) and Joel clearly have a bond, as evidenced by season 2, episode 1, “Future Days.” Joel and Dina chat about electronics, with Joel affectionately calling her “kiddo.”

This adds to the show’s tension when Dina — not Tommy — is present when Joel is murdered.

“Early on, we talked a lot about clarifying, or at least demonstrating, how much Dina cared about Joel,” Mazin told Entertainment Weekly. “Dina did care deeply about Joel. To put Dina in that spot and to make her a front-row participant in this murder, it connects us more to her. Her choice to stay by Ellie’s side through thick and thin from this point forward is motivated just as much by her loss as it is by her friendship with Ellie.”

Tommy’s storyline

In The Last of Us Part II, when Joel finds and rescues Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) from a horde of Infected, he’s with Tommy on patrol. But in the series’ season 2, episode 2, “Future Days,” Joel is with Dina.

In the show, Tommy is protecting the Jackson settlement from another oncoming swarm of Infected attacking the city. This never happens in the video game franchise.

“We wanted to show what’s at stake for Jackson, because that will come into play later in the season as well,” Druckmann told TheWrap. “And we wanted one of our familiar characters to be [at the battle with the infected horde] and Tommy felt very natural for that.”

Abby’s motivations

Season 2, episode 2, “Through the Valley,” opens with Abby having a nightmare about finding her father’s “brains on the floor.” It sets the tone for the devastating events that happen next.

After Joel saves Abby from a hoard of Infected, she and her friends attack Joel and Dina. Dina is held at gunpoint and sedated, while Abby shoots Joel in the leg, beats him with a golf club and stabs him in the neck with a shard of the-now broken club.

Throughout her murder of Joel, Abby explains to him exactly why she’s doing it: She’s a former Firefly whose father was murdered by Joel during his season 1 massacre. Her father was the unarmed doctor who would have performed Ellie’s surgery.

In the video game The Last of Us Part II, Abby’s backstory isn’t revealed until much later, even though she eventually becomes a playable character. She also doesn’t stab Joel, instead bludgeoning him over the head with the golf club for her killing blow.

Mazin said he wanted to build sympathy for Abby right away.

“What we’re seeing is somebody that is good. She’s not a bad person. She’s grieving the loss of her father and her friends and her life and she’s heartbroken,” he told TheWrap. “This is not somebody who murders people regularly.”