The Last of Us episode three, "Long, Long Time", is utterly beautiful. It's also about two queer men, so naturally, it was review bombed until it was the lowest-rated episode of the series so far. This hasn't escaped the attention of series star Bella Ramsey, who has a simple message for the homophobes: "get used to it".
That's right, the gays aren't going anywhere. In an interview shared just after the premiere of the fifth episode, Ramsey tells the haters that they're "missing out", hinting that there are many more queer storylines to come in the next season.
During an interview with GQ, Ramsey spends a lot of time going over the negative reactions to aspects of the show, particularly its inclusion of gay and (as of season two) transgender characters. Being non-binary herself, she isn't afraid to confront the bigots directly, even as season two is set to include even more queer characters.
"I’m not particularly anxious about it," says Ramsay. "I know people will think what they want to think. But they’re gonna have to get used to it. If you don’t want to watch the show because it has gay storylines, because it has a trans character, that’s on you, and you’re missing out."
Indeed, if they want to keep watching The Last of Us, they'll have much more than a couple of queer guys to contend with. Slight game spoilers here, but Ellie herself is very, very gay. The show has already touched on this very subtly, but this will likely become more apparent as we are shown more flashbacks of what Ellie was up to before meeting Joel.
Then in season two, it seems that we'll be introduced to Dina, Ellie's love interest. As we move onto Abby's part of the story, we'll see Lev, a trans boy. Lev's voice actor Ian Alexander has made it clear they would be interested in reprising the role, so it's possible that season two will feature many more queer stories than the first. So yeah, get used to it.