The Last of Us Creators Reveal How One Infected Change Is Based on Real Science

The terrifying new Stalkers, recently introduced in the latest season of HBO’s The Last of Us, possess a chilling visual detail: eyes that eerily reflect flashlight beams. This unsettling characteristic, as it turns out, is deliberately grounded in real-world science. Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann discussed this specific design choice for the stealthy Infected on the official The Last of Us Podcast, which aired following the broadcast of Season 2 Episode 5, “Feel Her Love.” This subtle yet highly effective visual cue not only enhances their predatory nature but also underscores the series’ ongoing commitment to finding plausible biological explanations for its horrors, a hallmark that has consistently distinguished the acclaimed adaptation.

“We worked really hard on those,” Craig Mazin explained about the eyes of the Stalker infected. “There are versions, you know… You get these sorts of things back because it’s a visual effect that we do, obviously. And there are versions where it’s like, ‘Oh, look, they’re ghosts. They’ve got these shiny…’ And you just keep pulling it back, pulling it back, and trying to make it as realistic as possible, the way that dogs or sheep or other animals, at night, their retinas will reflect back white. And something has happened inside the Stalkers to do something similar to their eyes. And it’s the barest thing. You don’t want them to look like Jawas from Star Wars, you know, so like we really fine-tune that stuff to make sure it’s just barely there.”

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“And that goes back to a conversation months prior to when we’re concepting the Stalkers and talking about, oh, how the cordyceps eats away parts of the eye,” Druckmann added. “It’s almost like having cataracts. You see people who have certain eye conditions. Their eye behaves in that way. So it’s going back, it’s based in science.” This explanation is a plausible in-universe reason for the unsettling glow, further terrifying viewers with the chilling thought that the fictional Cordyceps infection still follows real-life rules.

Season 2 Nears End, But The Last of Us Saga Far From Over

As the second season of The Last of Us charges into its final act with only two episodes remaining, the narrative adapted from the sprawling video game The Last of Us Part II is clearly just beginning to unfold. The game itself is a vast emotional journey, far exceeding the scope of the first installment, which the initial season of the HBO series managed to cover comprehensively. Recognizing this, showrunners Mazin and Druckmann have long affirmed that fully translating Part II‘s intricate storyline would require multiple television seasons. This strategic approach has already been backed up by HBO with the official renewal of The Last of Us for a third season.

While The Last of Us showrunners have been clear that they do not intend to create material beyond the scope of the second game, Mazin has even alluded to the possibility that the entirety of Part II might require more than just the upcoming third season to be fully realized on screen. This dedication to honoring the depth and breadth of Naughty Dog’s source material means viewers can expect the adaptation to continue its methodical exploration of Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) and Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) intertwined and devastating paths.

The Last of Us Season 2 airs new episodes on Sundays, on HBO and Max.

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