“The Last of Us” director Peter Hoar said he wanted to “trick” his audience into watching a gay love story in an episode of HBO Max’s new apocalyptic drama.
Hoar, who is gay and is known for his work on the British LGBT+ miniseries, “It’s a Sin,” said that he wanted the viewers to see that it was the “same love” as straight people, but just between two guys, Independent UK reported.
“Sometimes you have to sort of trick the rest of the world into watching these things before they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, it was two guys. I just realized,'” Hoar told Inverse magazine ahead the release of the zombie series’ third episode.
“I think then they might understand that it’s all real,” he added. “It’s just the same love.”
The journey continues.#TheLastofUs will return for another season on HBO Max. pic.twitter.com/GdcL4Uhkfv
— HBO Max (@hbomax) January 27, 2023
In the first two episodes of the series adapted from the popular video game, the show focused on fighting zombies. However, the third one veered off course with a self-contained romance between two surviving men Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) who hadn’t been infected with the virus.
Reading through reviews on”Rotten Tomatoes,” the third episode didn’t sit well with many who suggested skipping it, as most of the episode consisted of the romance between the two men.
“If episode 3 was about a heterosexual couple, fans would still be bored and disappointed,” one person wrote. “Most fans are watching for the adaptation of a video game about fighting zombies, not a full episode about romance. We all know why the episode is receiving high praise, let’s calm down.”
“They didn’t respect the existing story in the game with this episode 3, terrible!” another wrote.
One shared, “Episode 3 was an hour of my life I will never get back. Just watch episodes 1 & 2 and wait until episode 4 comes out.”
And on “Common Sense Media” a reviewer slammed the site for only showing “reviews based on first/early episodes.”
“There is a sex scene between two men in episode 3 not mentioned anywhere,” the person wrote. “For new/current series, there should be a weekly update from the review team. I wrote a similar review to the Terminal List series and as of today, it is still not updated. Very irresponsible to parents/guradians who use this site. Especially those who subscribe monthly. Please fix!!!”