The Last of Us showrunner reveals the influence of a groundbreaking comic book classic

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The last of us Episode five, “Hold on and Survive”.

showrunner Neil Druckman recently revealed how The last of us was inspired by an iconic comic book.

In conversation with The Last of Us Podcast, he spoke about the DC Comics limited series influencing the story. Tackling the catchphrase “endure and survive,” Druckmann shared that he got the idea of ​​adding a comic book to the series back in the 1986s Guardian.

“The whole idea for this comic book was very much inspired by Guardian. There is a comic book in the story that reflects on what is happening in the world. So we wanted to do something similar to where there was this sci-fi comic that touched on the same themes of relationships and love and all that. And I thought, ‘It should have a catchphrase that the main hero says.’ And I thought, “What could such a cheesy slogan be? Okay, our game is about survival.’ And then I just went to thesaurus.com and I typed in “survive” and “endure” came out and I said, “endure and survive! There it is!’ It’s very meaningful but obviously has a lot of thematic resonance.”

Written by comics legend Alan Moore, Guardian tells the story of a world on the brink of World War III and a massive conspiracy that comes to light when vigilante Rorschach begins investigating the murder of a superhero. As the story progresses, a subplot appears in what appears to be an unrelated comic read by one of the supporting characters. Although Tales of the Black Freighter may seem superfluous at first glance, it acts as a counterpoint to the main plot and hints at the twist ending.

In The last of us game and tv show, Wild Starlight is a comic book series that players can collect as one of four classes of collectibles in the first game in the franchise. The sci-fi comics are completely in-universe and consists of 14 issues that tell the story of battles between superheroes and evil masterminds.

Druckmann did not say whether or not in the interview Wild Starlight will foreshadow upcoming events Tales of the Black Freighter put in Guardian. fans of The last of us know that Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is a fan of the comics and Joel (Pedro Pinto) is collecting them for her. However, anyone familiar with the game knows that each edition of Wild starlight is a harbinger of things to come, so it might be worth rewatching episode five and getting a closer look at this comic.

The last of us airs Sundays on HBO Max.