When the first season of The Last of Us came out, one major change that the show made was with how people got infected with Cordyceps. Originally they would spread via spores, but they changed it in the show to be made of tendrils.
The series explained it enough, but now they’re bringing back spores for the second season. In an interview with IGN, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed that the change was done because they loved the idea of spores and they found ways to introduce them again narratively.
Mazin explains, “The question is, because I love the spores too, ‘What circumstance can we create as we go into our second season, that rationalizes them, that makes us understand why they haven’t spread everywhere and that even connects to a relationship to people.’”
Druckmann adds on, “This is one of those great opportunities where it’s like now that we’ve changed how they get introduced, let’s reinterrogate how we see them. Visually there’s something really provocative about how they’re manufactured in the show.”
A it turns out, the spores have been hinted at in the trailer with Ellie finding an infected person breathing something out. Apparently the spores will have something to do with them coming out of a person this time.
We don’t know how much of it is going to change the original story, but Mazin and Druckmann have confirmed that they switch from tendrils to spores depending on what was more dramatic.
Watch out for The Last of Us Season 2 when it premieres on Max this April 13.
