Episodes of The Last of Us that show LGBTQ+ storylines have been being ‘review bombed’ by people maliciously trying to drive their ratings down. Here’s the trailer for the hit HBO show, in case you haven’t already caught up.
The show has been widely praised for looking great, containing some fantastic individual performances, but also for portraying an inclusive cast of characters.
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Hell, it would take someone with a heart of stone not to have been moved by the third episode of the season, which featured some seriously emotive acting from Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett.
That’s not the only episode that featured a same-sex relationship though, with episode seven also focusing on romance between Bella Ramsey’s character Ellie and Riley, played by Storm Reid.
Anyway, despite receiving some of the most positive reviews that the series has had – and there have been a lot – those episodes are the most poorly rated on film and TV aggregator websites, largely down to people deliberately downvoting them, presumably because of their LGBTQ+ content.
The episode starring Offerman and Bartlett as long-time couple Bill and Frank ranks at 8 overall, with the seventh episode at 7.4.
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They’re easily the lowest rated, but Long, Long Time – the third instalment – has more than 211,000 votes, which is more than twice the amount of any other episode.
That indicates that there’s something strange at play here.
The show itself came to a conclusion with the final episode last week, but – don’t worry – there is going to be more yet.
The creators of the show have already confirmed that a second series is in the works, which will adapt the second video game The Last of Us Part II.
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In that 2020 release, there was a transgender character that drew a similar review bombing campaign from gamers at the time, as well as a prominent new female character in the leading cast.
For that next season to be realistic, Ellie would have to age up from 14 to 19-years-old, which led to rumours that she might be recast.
Strange really, given that Ramsey is actually 19 now, though she was 17 when filming for series one started.
Co-creator Neil Druckmann said: “Let’s put this thing to rest.
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“The only way we would ever, ever consider re-casting Bella is if she said, ‘I don’t want to work with you guys anymore'.
“And even then, we’re not sure we would grant her that.
“We might still force her to come back to season 2.”
The show's other creator Craig Mazin went on to mention that there was some speculation before the show about the fact that Ramsey didn’t look like her character from the video games.
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“I’m like, ‘It doesn’t matter. Watch! Just watch what happens'. And now they know,” he said.
“I think there is still this constant drumbeat of anxiety.
“All I can say to people is, I have so much anxiety myself about doing a good job on this.
“Just know I am also very anxious.
“If you’re anxious about something, I’m probably anxious about it, which means we’re talking about it and thinking about it.
“It will [season two] be different just as this season was different [from the first game].
“Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be [barely] different at all. But it’s going to be different and it will be its own thing.
“It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make.
“But we are making it with Bella.”
Topics: The Last of Us, HBO, Film and TV, LGBTQ