In the series “The Last of Us”, the Cordyceps fungus (which exists in real life) infected the majority of the world’s population in 2003, turning them into violent creatures and leaving modern civilization in ruins for 20 years.
The contamination originated in Jakarta, Indonesia, where the world’s largest flour factory was located. There people ate bread contaminated with the fungus and then bit and “kissed” others and infected them as well.
Although the story of the series focuses on the adventure that Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have in Boston (United States), the only person who is immune to the infection, all countries have suffered the consequences of the terrible disease .
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‘The Last of Us’: What happened to the rest of the world after it was infected by the fungus?
The most striking example of how the apocalyptic mushroom of “The Last of Us” has affected other parts of the world can be found in the images shared by the studio that created the original video game.
To promote the first game’s release in 2014, developer Naughty Dog shared several pieces of artwork showing some of the affected cities (such as London, Paris, Rome, and Moscow) following the infection.
It can be seen that in the 20 years that the disease has plagued the world, major cities are in ruins, nature has renovated urban spaces, and the Cordyceps fungus has spread underground and on walls.
Other facts about the global havoc the fungus is wreaking, and which have not been addressed in the series, can also be known thanks to the original video game “The Last of Us” that HBO adapted almost identically to its series.
At the beginning of the game, there are newspaper articles in Joel’s house, which talk about contaminated fields in South America and the crops that have reached Mexico.
Another of the documents found in the game reveals that, at the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO estimated that 60% of the world’s population had been infected or died from the infection caused by Cordyceps.
As shown in the second episode of the HBO series, where a mycologist says that the only hope of containing the infection is to bomb the cities, this also happens in the game.
This is why many cities were finished, but the strategy was successful in only a few and quarantine zones were created to prevent further transmission.
The series “The Last of Us” on HBO Max has expanded the origin of the virus to what is seen in video games, so it is possible that more details of the ravages of the infection can be seen in the rest of the world.
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Source: univision
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
