'The Last of Us' Showrunners Confirm Season 2 Is Retconning the Game in One Way

The Last of Us Season 2 is only a month away from airing on HBO and Max. The highly anticipated second season is already breaking records at HBO, with an impressive number of views on the latest trailer for the show. Plenty of fans are excited about the continuation of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) story and the expansion of the post-apocalyptic world. Now that there will be more locations and types of infected introduced in Season 2 (similar to the second game it's based on), showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have revealed a new change to the world of the show as opposed to the video game.

During The Last of Us Season 2 Panel at SXSW in Austin, Mazin and Druckmann talked about how the new season would be an "escalation" of what came before. Not only will these new episodes escalate the action and stakes, but also the infected, as Mazin would say at the panel:

"So it was important to us to always move the ball forward with the infected. It's not a question of just more, but something else. Something that is meaningful to what is going on so that they don't just become NPCs. So definitely, definitely an escalation. We're careful about it."

It seems that, much like the second game in the series, Mazin and Druckmann seek to expand the different types of infected. Interestingly, it won't just be in their designs but also how the Cordyceps infection spreads. One of the most significant changes the first season made to the game's story is how the disease spreads, as spores were removed and not mentioned. However, it now seems that the change is going to be reversed.

'The Last of Us' Season 2 Will Feature the Return of Spores

After Mazin's comments, Druckmann would chime in and talk about the return of spores, with Mazin then dropping the reveal immediately afterward. The co-creators of the HBO series would detail how they changed how the infection spread in the game, now making it so that there was a disgusting tendril effect from people's mouths that made things that much more disturbing in the first season. However, escalating the stakes and emotion in the story called for the return of spores, as the two would say:

Druckmann: Yeah, there's an escalation of numbers and types of infected. But also, as you see in the trailer, an escalation of the vector of how this thing spreads. Season 1, we had this new thing that wasn't in the game, like these tendrils that spread. And that's that was one form. And then this one shot you see in this trailer, there are things in the air.

Mazin: Spores. Yes. They're back

The first season of The Last of Us worked so well as an adaptation, not because of how close it matched the source material, but instead due to the commitment to the drama and character work. Changes were made to the lore of the video game to better serve the characters in the story, which shows that accuracy isn't everything. Now that spores can exist in the show in a way that escalates the drama and tension, it only makes sense to bring them back. Hopefully, whatever other changes the writers have in store for season 2 also better serve the story.