When we meet Bill in The Last of Us, it’s heavily implied that he was gay and that he had a romance with his old partner Frank. Though we only get to see the aftermath of their relationship, it looks like the HBO series will delve more into it.
In an interview with The New Yorker, game director Neil Druckmann, who is also attached to the HBO series, confirmed that an entire episode will be dedicated to the relationship between Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett).
Druckmann explains:
“As awesome as that episode is, there are going to be fans who are upset by it… To me, the story we tell is authentic to the world. It’s authentic to the themes that we’re talking about.”
Just like all the other characters in the show, Bill and Frank are there to serve as comparisons for Joel and Ellie’s relationship, and Druckmann explains that it’s about “outward love and inward love—the people who want to make everybody better, and the people who want to protect particular people at any cost.”
Probably one of the more interesting hat tricks of The Last of Us is having the player slowly sympathize for Joel and Ellie’s journey, and that gets ramped up to eleven when the sequel comes around. We don’t know how much of the game the first season can cover, but I would love to spend a lot of time with Offerman’s Bill who kind of sounds like an actual Ron Swanson surviving in the apocalypse.
Catch The Last of Us when it premieres on HBO Max on Jan. 16, 2023.
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