Why was the word zombie banned on the set of The Last of Us?

The word “zombie” was banned from the set of The Last of Us. is what revealed Eben Bolterdirector of photography for the HBO series, in an interview with The Credits. Production wanted to distance itself from traditional series and films of the genre, which focus more on monsters.

“We couldn’t say the Z-word on set. It was banned. They’re called the infected. It’s not a zombie show. Sure, there’s tension building and scares, but the show is about our characters. The infected are just one obstacle they have to deal with,” he explained.

Bolter cites episode three as an example, when Ellie comes across an infected: “At first, she’s scared, but we see her confidence growing, we see what the infected mean in her life. She was born into a world that went very wrong because of these things, and now, maybe she have the solution for everything within yourself.”

“We see the performance of Bella [Ramsey] as she wanders between curiosity and hate and we think, ‘Wow, what is this girl capable of?’ There is darkness and anger. So even in scenes with the infected, the characters come first and tell the story.”

New episodes of The Last of Us premiere weekly on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.