HBO’s The Last of Us Season II has become the latest battleground in Hollywood’s endless culture wars, as LGBTQ+ advocates slammed the show this week for “omitting” a teen lesbian sex scene between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) that appeared in story of the original video game. Despite identity-driven storytelling increasingly dominates prestige TV, LGBTQ+ activists seem to be demanding more.
The series has been hailed as a trailblazer for queer representation, but now faces accusations of backpedaling after excluding the key moment from Naughty Dog Studios’ The Last of Us Part II game where the two teen characters share some girl on girl intimacy. Never mind that Season 1 already included Ellie’s same-sex kiss with Riley (Storm Reid), and an entire episode centered around Bill and Frank, a gay couple who share a long-lasting love story. Season 2’s premiere also featured her brushing off homophobic slurs. But this particular omission, identity driven critics argue, risks erasing an important aspect of the characters’ relationship. Gay advocacy website PinkNews dutifully amplified fan concerns, noting the scene’s absence has fueled doubts about the adaptation’s commitment to the source material’s LGBTQ+ themes.
See Also Forget Zombie Apocalypses, ‘Last of Us’ Season 2 All About “Feeding the Gays”
Co-star Isabela Merced, however, insists the outrage is misplaced. “The gays are going to be fed,” she recently quipped, defending the season’s “authentic” gay approach by highlighting behind-the-scenes hires like a gay woman editor tasked with safeguarding queer narratives in the show. These kinds of pledges reflects an industry now reflexively layering identity-focused checkpoints into productions and prioritizing them over storytlling, yet even these measures are failing to quell the ever growing demands and disappointment of the activists.
Related: ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Audience Scores Crater After 2nd Episode
Here lies the irony: In an era where nearly every major studio project is required to brandish its diversity credentials, The Last of Us—a show already well steeped in LGBTQ+ storylines—still can’t escape activist scrutiny. This week’s backlash underscores a peculiar tension in modern Hollywood, where representation has become both a badge of honor and an ever moving target, and one studios should learn never to aim at. How much is enough? For activists, the answer seems perpetually “more,” even as mainstream audiences grew weary long ago of heavy-handedness of these identity-driven narratives.
***
Karina Smitt
I'm not as much of a "CoMiCs NeEd MoAr DiVeRsItY & iNcLuSiOn" advocate as my girlfriend often is, but we both love funny books, crispy bacon, straight bourbon and hip hop. Add yet, we never vote the same, so we cancel each other out... and that works perfectly in my book!
English (US) · 