Potential spoilers for The Last of Us follow.
HBO's The Last of Us is currently in the middle of filming, and if some new set photos are what they seem to be, it's all set to traumatize just as many people as the original game. Even the actors are invested, as one plans to do a permadeath run of the games. Thanks to some sneak peeks at what appear to be an in-construction set for the show located in Calgary, fans of Sony's shooting and crying simulator are already speculating about what the set might be, and it might be a real doozy.
Last week, a number of shots surfaced showing off several construction vehicles hard at work on a new filming set. While it admittedly may not look all that significant out of context, plenty of fans quickly flocked to the pictures with a glint of recognition. It turns out this may be more than a simple city set, and those who have played the original The Last of Us game (as well as the more divisive The Last of Us Part II) are already steeling themselves for more heartbreak.
Dedicated Twitter account "The Last of Us Updates" shared the photos in a tweet, quickly drawing the attention of game fans and potential interested TV viewers as well. Based on the look of the set as well as the number of dread-filled replies to the original post, it seems fairly likely that the pictures in question involve the Boston quarantine zone from the game, presumably where The Last of Us is currently filming. This is where the game properly begins 20 years after the particularly brutal (both visually and emotionally) prologue, and the fans know all too well what that means.
Users were quick to point out that, if they were already filming scenes set in Boston, that means the prologue that saw main character Joel (Pedro Pascal) witness the beginning of the story-defining plague while losing his young daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) to gunfire from an overzealous soldier will be included. Based on an image released when HBO's The Last of Us began filming, it seems likely that this is true, since the picture features the actors for all the key characters from that particular scene.
So if this is the Boston quarantine zone, that means the team is either working on or getting ready to film the segments where Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) finally meet before setting off on their journey to potentially cure the plague. Of course, that also means the scene involving the death of Joel's friend and smuggling partner Tess (Anna Torv). So get those tissues ready, and then maybe some heavy-duty paper towels for when the tissues aren't enough.
With HBO's The Last of Us currently in production, it looks like there's still a long wait before it finally premieres. So fans will have to forego being sad in favor of speculating about how sad they're inevitably going to be. Maybe a new question could regard how many LGBTQ+ characters it will feature. Television is truly an emotionally draining experience, isn't it?
Source: The Last of Us Updates/Twitter