Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

'The Last Of Us' Showrunner Confirms Parasitic Fungus From The Show Is 'Real'—And It's 'Terrifying'

Mutant creature from HBO's "The Last of Us"
HBO

While the cordyceps fungus hasn't set its sites on humans just yet, the insect kingdom is another story.

Viewers of HBO's newest sci-fi horror action-adventure series The Last of Us have been wondering about the plausibility of a plotline involving a parasitic fungus that takes over the population and transforms humans into zombie-like mutants.

They just got an alarming answer from the series showrunner suggesting the human race was inevitably doomed.


The Last of Us is based on the popular video game played from a third-person perspective.

It takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where players defend themselves with weapons against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.

When the audience of the HBO series asked if the parasitic fungus controlling human hosts had any basis in reality, showrunner Craig Mazin who is also the creator of the five-part HBO miniseries Chernobyl, said bluntly:

"It's real."

You can see a trailer for the show here:

The Last of Us | Official Trailer | HBO Maxyoutu.be

The show's cold open began with an epidemiologist, played by actor John Hannah, who appeared on a talk show set in 1963 and warned about the looming threat of a fungus that can infect and control humans if the spores evolved long enough to survive in a warmer climate, hypothetically due to climate change.

The host told the incredulous talk show host:

“Candida, ergot, Cordyceps, Aspergillosis—any one of them could be capable of burrowing into our brains and taking control of not millions of us, but billions."
"Billions of puppets with poison minds… and there are no treatments for this, no preventatives."
"They don’t exist, it’s not even possible to make them.”
"So if that happens, we lose."

You can see the cold open here.

Referring to Hannah's warning speech from the episode, Mazin told the Hollywood Reporter:

"It’s real to the extent that everything he says that fungus do, they do."
"And they currently do it and have been doing it forever."
“There are some remarkable documentaries that you can watch that are quite terrifying.”
Twitter users were left quivering.



A 2019 National Geographic article titled "How a parasitic fungus turns ants into 'zombies'," reported how researchers thought a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis:

"...infects a foraging ant through spores that attach and penetrate the exoskeleton and slowly takes over its behavior."

The article continued:

"As the infection advances, the enthralled ant is compelled to leave its nest for a more humid microclimate that’s favorable to the fungus’s growth."
"The ant is compelled to descend to a vantage point about 10 inches off the ground, sink its jaws into a leaf vein on the north side of a plant, and wait for death."



Mazin assured audiences:

Now his warning—what if they evolve and get into us?—from a purely scientific point of view, would they do exactly to us what they do to ants? I don’t think so. I doubt it."
"On the other hand, he’s right—LSD and psilocybin do come from fungus. What I told John [Hannah] was, ‘What we’re doing in this scene is telling people this has always been here'.”

Now there's some food for thought.





More from News/science

Kid Rock
Todd Kirkland/Getty Images

Kid Rock Dragged After Donning A Truly Over-The-Top Outfit For His White House Visit

Singer Kid Rock was slammed for wearing a loud patriotic costume inside the Oval Office as Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday against ticket scalping.

The rocker's outfit consisted of a red, white, and blue jacket emblazoned with two eagles facing each other above the American flag with the number 250, a nod to America's upcoming 250th anniversary, and white stars on his sleeves.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Bill Cassidy
CNBC

MAGA Senator Just Said The Quiet Part Out Loud With Epic Freudian Slip About Medicare

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was widely mocked following his inconvenient slip of the tongue during a CNBC interview as he mused about finding ways to "cut" Medicare before quickly correcting himself.

The exchange occurred after host Rebecca Quick pressed Louisiana Republican and former physician Bill Cassidy on how his party intended to fund the “trillion-dollar tax cuts” sought by President Donald Trump.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Tim Sheehy
CNN

GOP Senator Gets Blunt Reality Check After Comparing Trump Tariff 'Pain' To Home Renovation

Montana Republican Senator Tim Sheehy was criticized after he tried to compare the "short-term pain" of President Donald Trump's tariffs to home renovation, a claim so ridiculous that CNN's Kaitlan Collins quickly pushed back on the analogy.

Trump has repeatedly referred to April 2 as “Liberation Day,” pledging to impose tariffs—taxes on imports—to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign goods. He has framed these tariffs as “reciprocal,” aiming to match the duties other nations place on American exports.

Keep ReadingShow less
Susan Crawford; Elon Musk
Scott Olson/Getty Images (left and right)

Liberal Wisconsin Judge Calls Out Elon Musk In Victory Speech—And It's Everything

Liberal judge Susan Crawford called out billionaire Elon Musk in her victory speech after winning a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, basking in successfully beating her Republican opponent Brad Schimel and ensuring that the nonpartisan court’s narrow 4-3 liberal majority remains intact despite Musk's efforts to sway the race.

Musk fueled the high-stakes race, having poured more than $20 million into supporting Schimel, according to state campaign records. That includes $3 million to the state Republican Party—$2 million of which was donated just last week. Due to state election laws, large contributions must be funneled through political parties before reaching candidates.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Describe The Worst 'Bonus' They've Ever Gotten At Work

Most of us have worked at one problematic workplace, with reasons ranging from toxic coworkers to terrible bosses to unlivable pay. Sometimes, it feels like a joke that the employees are even being paid at all!

But the biggest joke of all might be the end-of-year bonus, or lack thereof. They're at times so laughable, they take the cake for horrible work conditions, or are quite literally, a slice of cake.

Keep ReadingShow less