The Last of Us: What you need to know about the show and game

An HBO show, The Last of Us, is about a fungus-fueled apocalypse. Above, lead characters Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) discover a human body that was taken over by a fungus. | Liane Hentscher/HBO

News, reviews, and more on HBO Max’s The Last of Us.

The Last of Us is HBOs latest mega-popular series. It presents a compelling case that perhaps there’s such a thing as a realistic zombie. Or realistic-ish. And it’s definitely scary.

The premise of the show, which is based on the popular video game of the same name, isn’t that different from your typical post-apocalyptic horror story: US cities are crumbling, there are infectious humans everywhere, and a manly man (played by Pedro Pascal) has to protect a young girl (Bella Ramsay) as they travel across the country.

In the show, it’s not a virus that turns people into zombies but a kind of fungus called cordyceps. The fungus takes over the minds and bodies of humans and makes them want to spread the fungus to the uninfected. The zombie-causing fungus in the show is mostly fictitious — at least, as a human pathogen.

Here’s everything you need to know about the show that has everyone talking — and tweeting.