HBO’s The Last of Us TV show is proving to be one of the best new series of the past few years. Not only that, but fans and critics are calling it the most faithful video game adaption ever. It’s true – the show does the incredible games justice. However, there are still a number of differences between the TV show and games.
The Last of Us follows survivors Joel and Ellie as they travel across post-apocalyptic America.
The country and the world have been ravaged by the Cordyceps brain infection (CBI). CBI is a fungal infection that takes control of humans and turns them into murderous, flesh-eating zombie-like creatures called “Infected”.
Ellie is a survivor of the infection. It usually takes up to 24 hours for humans to succumb to it. However, at the start of the show and games, Ellie is shown to have survived with it for three weeks.
As a result, the Fireflies (a rebel group) believe her to be the key to a cure or vaccine.
This premise is the same in the TV show as it was in the games. However, there are a number of differences that exist between the two versions of The Last of Us.
So, let’s rundown the differences between the TV show and video game versions of The Last of Us.
We will continue to update this list as more episodes of HBO’s series are released.
The Last of Us: Differences Between TV Show and Games
1. Expanded Pre-Outbreak Prologue
In the games, we join Joel and his daughter Sarah on his birthday. Joel returns home from a long day at work and Sarah gifts him his trademark watch. Joel then turns on the TV and Sarah falls asleep on the sofa before he carries her to bed.
A while later, she wakes up to a phone call from her Uncle Tommy who’s wanting to speak to Joel. Sarah searches the house but her father is nowhere to be found. She heads downstairs when a startled Joel bursts in from outside.
He explains something is wrong with the neighbours. Jimmy Cooper then crashes through the glass door and Joel shoots him dead. Before long, Joel, Sarah and Tommy head off in a truck to escape the chaos.
In the show, the whole prologue is expanded to further detail the initial outbreak.
It begins with Joel’s birthday breakfast before he goes to work and Sarah heads to school. She then goes into the city to fix Joel’s broken watch. Along the way, she notices the increased police presence.
After returning home, she visits their elderly neighbours where one of them displays signs of infection. Soon, Joel returns home from work and the two settle down to watch a movie. He then gets a call from Tommy, who’s in jail, and Joel goes to bail him out.
Sarah wakes up to explosions outside. Joel is still not home. She then goes next-door to find out what’s happening only to discover that the elderly couple have been killed by their previously wheelchair-bound mother.
From this point on, events in the games and TV show are basically identical. But it was still cool to see a bit more of Joel and Sarah’s lives before the outbreak.
2. Joel and Sarah’s Neighbours
As mentioned, both the games and TV show involve the neighbours living next-door to Joel and Sarah. However, they have different names and ages.
In the games, Joel explains, “It’s the Coopers. Somethin’ ain’t right with ’em.” Jimmy Cooper – a man in his 30s or 40s – then breaks in through the glass door and Joel shoots him.
In the TV show, the neighbours are named “Adler”. There are three of them – an older couple and an elderly mother, Connie.
3. Joel Smuggles More Than Weapons
In The Last of Us games and TV show, Joel is a smuggler working alongside his partner Tess. However, the merchandise he moves differs between the two mediums.
In the games, we only hear of Joel smuggling weapons in and out of the quarantine zone. But in the TV show, we see him transporting and selling cigarettes, drugs, and car batteries.
4. Joel Takes Drugs
In both versions of The Last of Us, it’s clear Joel isn’t exactly enjoying post-apocalyptic life. But in the show we see Joel indulging in some of the drugs he’s smuggling. This doesn’t happen in the games where we only see him drink alcohol.
5. Stolen Merchandise
In the first episode of The Last of Us show, Joel and Tess set out to retrieve a car battery that was stolen by a man named Robert. This leads to them coming across Marlene and being tasked with escorting Ellie to the Fireflies at the state capitol building.
The games took a slightly different approach. Instead of a car battery, Robert stole a shipment of weapons which he then sold on without Joel and Tess’ permission.
Ultimately, the result ends up being the same as the pair meet Marlene and Ellie after dealing with Robert.
6. Robert’s Death
On the subject of Robert, his death is different in the TV show than it is in the games.
In the games, Tess shoots and kills him as payback for stealing their weapons. However, in the show, Robert is already dead when they track him down to the Fireflies’ headquarters.
7. Veronica
When viewers meet Ellie in the TV show, she is being held captive by Marlene and the Fireflies. To conceal her identity, she uses the fake-name Veronica. Unfortunately for Ellie, Marlene already knows her real name. She uses this to gain Ellie’s trust.
In the game’s, we don’t see any of this and Ellie never uses the name Veronica. By the time Joel and Tess are tasked with transporting her, Ellie already trusts Marlene and the Fireflies.
8. Bill and Frank
One of the most interesting changes was the different role that Bill and Frank play in the TV show.
We see that Joel has been in communication with them by way of a secret radio code that Ellie quickly deciphers. It appears that Joel works with Bill and Frank in his smuggling operation.
The games make no mention of Bill and Frank until the player reaches the town in which they live. Joel makes reference to Bill as an old friend who owes him a few favours, but no mention is made of a joint smuggling operation.
Also different is the fact that Frank and Bill are no longer together when Joel and Ellie meet them in the games. The pair have gone their separate ways and Frank has committed suicide after being infected.
9. Timeline
Just like in the games, the TV show begins with a prologue showing the onset of the outbreak before jumping forward twenty years.
The games place the outbreak in 2013 and the rest of the story in 2033 and beyond. However, in The Last of Us TV show, the outbreak starts in 2003 and skips forward to 2023, a whole decade earlier than the games.
10. Method of Infection
One of the most publicised (and criticised) changes was the way in which people become infected with the Cordyceps infection.
In The Last of Us games, Joel must wear a gas mask to protect himself from fungal spores that infect humans. However, the TV show omits the spores entirely in favour of “tendrils”.
These work by unifying the Cordyceps fungus into one coordinated organism that is able to pull people in and infect them.
11. Joel’s Age
The Last Of Us TV show makes Joel slightly older than he is in the games. He is now 36 when the outbreak occurs and 56 after the twenty year time jump.
In the games, Joel was 32 when he lost Sarah and 52 when he met Ellie.
12. Joel and Tess’ Relationship
The Last of Us game makes it clear that Joel and Tess are close friends and business colleagues. However, the TV show suggests that their relationship is romantic.
When Joel passes out in bed after drinking and taking drugs, we see Tess return home and cuddle him in bed. This never happens in the game and it isn’t implied that the two are any more than friends.
13. The Guard
Ellie stabs the FEDRA guard in the leg as he checks her for infection in both The Last of Us TV show and the game.
The difference is that in the game Joel doesn’t seem to know the guard. Whereas in the TV show we see Joel dealing drugs to the guard earlier in episode one and the two clearly have a business relationship.
Did you spot any other differences between the different versions of The Last of Us? Let us know in the comment section below and check out our other Film & TV articles…
