'The Last of Us' Is Coming to HBO, and It's Staying Gay

One of the most well-loved video games of recent years, The Last of Us, is being adapted as a TV series — and yes, our fave protagonist is still going to be gay.

The story-heavy post-apocalyptic PlayStation 3 game came out in 2013, and had players battling enemies as Joel, a smuggler charged with the protection of a teenage girl, Ellie. Ellie quickly became a beacon of LGBTQ representation in video games after additional downloadable content featured her kissing her best friend, Riley.

News of the adaptation was announced earlier this week. The upcoming series is being adapted by the game’s writer, Neil Druckmann, and Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin, and will eventually head to HBO.

As soon as the adaptation was announced, queer fans wondered if the show would keep Ellie’s sexuality in tact, or if it would gloss over or ignore it altogether, as so often seems to happen when queer characters from games, comics, and books get the film or TV treatment.

Fortunately, Mazin has already alleviated our concerns.

“You have my word,” he tweeted in response to a fan who told HBO to “keep the gay gay.”

Strangely enough, the response prompted a backlash from homophobic fans of The Last of Us, who apparently fully missed the memo on Ellie’s sexuality. Unfortunately for them (and very fortunately for the rest of us), a trailer for the upcoming sequel to the popular game shows Ellie continuing to spend her post-apocalyptic days wooing girls.

The Last of Us Part II is slated for a May 2020 release on PS4, but a release date for the HBO series has yet to be announced.