After The Last of Us season 1 ignored the scariest infected variant from the games, season 2 needs to bring in the franchise’s creepiest type of zombie. The biggest complaint about HBO’s The Last of Us was that it didn’t feature nearly as many encounters with the infected as the games. The TV adaptation was always going to have fewer infected encounters, because of the nature of the medium, but it reduced the infected’s presence so much that they didn’t feel like the ever-present threat they are in the games, to the point that a cure seemed less necessary.
Still, when the infected did show up in season 1, the producers featured a wide range of infected variants. A runner attacked Ellie’s mother Anna while she was giving birth; a clicker came after Joel, Ellie, and Tess at the museum, just like in the game; and a bloater emerged when Kathleen’s army was ravaged by a horde. But there’s still one key infected variant from the games that’s missing from the TV show. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin has promised more infected in The Last of Us season 2, and it should finally bring in this missing zombie type.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Needs To Introduce Stalkers
Stalkers Are Arguably The Last Of Us' Scariest Infected Variant
Season 1 didn’t feature any stalkers, but they’re arguably the scariest kind of infected in the games. If The Last of Us season 2 is going to make good on its promise to include more infected and ramp up the zombie terror, then it needs to finally introduce stalkers. Although stalkers were featured in a couple of encounters in the first game – most notably in the hotel basement in Pittsburgh and in the sewers on the way out of Pittsburgh – they’re featured much more prominently in the second game, so season 2 is the perfect place to introduce them.
There are a ton of encounters in The Last of Us Part II that revolve around stalkers. When Ellie is making her way to the hospital through a newspaper office, she’s surrounded by the terrifying creatures. When Abby and Lev are making their daring descent through the infested hotel, a bunch of stalkers that have grown into the walls jump out at them. When Ellie is traversing the Santa Barbara suburbs on her way to find Abby in the final stretch of the game, she’s chased by stalkers. The game presents plenty of opportunities for the TV adaptation to feature stalkers, ratcheting up the terror in the process.
What Makes Stalkers So Terrifying
Stalkers Make Every Strategy For Defeating The Infected Completely Useless
Stalkers are by far the most terrifying type of infected in The Last of Us games. Whereas runners stand hunched over, minding their own business, and clickers are blind, stalkers are acutely aware of the player. They hide behind cover, watching the player get closer and closer, ready to pounce. They lurk in the shadows and can’t be seen in listen mode, which makes them infinitely harder to track down. And when they are tracked down, unless there’s a loaded shotgun handy, they’re tricky to kill.
The Last of Us season 2 is expected to air sometime in the first half of 2025.
Stalkers render every typical strategy for taking down the infected completely useless. The strategy is usually to sneak up behind the infected and stealth-kill them. However, stalkers turn the tables and sneak up behind the player. It’s as if the stalkers have their own listen mode that they’re using to find the player. In many ways, they’re the worst of both worlds; they have the speed and agility of a runner, but they’ve also been infected for long enough to grow the crusty suit of armor that makes clickers so difficult to kill.
Why Stalkers Are Perfect For The Last Of Us' TV Adaptation
Stalkers Are Great For Jump Scares
Stalkers are ideal for The Last of Us’ TV adaptation, because they’d be just as effective in a TV show as they are in the games. For most infected types, the fun of the encounter diminishes when the controller is taken out of the equation. Watching TV Joel sneak up behind a clicker and stealth-kill it with a shiv wouldn’t be as much fun as actually doing the sneaking and stealth-killing in the game. Likewise, watching TV Joel fire round after round into a bloater wouldn’t be as much fun as actually doing it yourself as a player.
Since they hide around corners and sneak up behind the player, [stalkers are] great for jump scares...
But stalkers would be just as effective in The Last of Us TV show as they are in the games. Since they hide around corners and sneak up behind the player, they’re great for jump scares, so their impact won’t be lessened in the transition from gameplay to TV. A good jump scare is just as frightening whether it’s in a video game or a TV show, and stalkers have already proven that they're more than capable of delivering on this front.
