The Last of Us makers branded ‘pretentious’ for ‘banning’ certain word on set

The Last of Us makers are being called “pretetnious” after it was revealed they “banned” a certain word from being spoken on set.

Last month, the HBO videogame adaptation, from Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, was released to acclaim, with particular praise being heaped upon lead stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by an outbreak that sees heat=adsapted fungus cordyceps reduce humans to an infected state.

Many viewers unfamiliar with the games might assume that the infected are, in fact, zombies – but this is actually a point of contention among fans who get frustrated when people refer to them as such.

It turns out the word “zombie” was actually banned from being spoken on set. Cinematographer Even Bolten, who worked on four episodes of the season, made the revelation in a new interview.

“We weren’t allowed to say the Z word on set,” Bolter told The Credits. “It was like a banned word. They were the Infected. We weren’t a zombie show.”

The cinematographer added that the series is “not a cliché zombie movie”, but described it as “a world of organic cinematic naturalism”.

In response, viewers are accusing the show’s makers of being “pretentious” and “dramatic”.

“My gosh, this is so unnecessarily dramatic,” one viewer wrote, with another adding: “I love this show but everything ive heard about the production of it has been so pretentious.”

Meanwhile one viewer stated: “It’s not that serious.”

In the show, the infected characters are referred to as “clickers” – but, in episode four, a new phase was revealed via a character named “the Bloater”.

Adam Basil, a 6’6” British stuntman, played the Bloater, and in a new interview, he opened up about how the character has “captured a lot of people’s imaginations”.