In HBO Max's latest apocalyptic drama, “The Last of Us,” director Peter Hoar said that he wanted to “trick” his audience into watching a gay love story. Hoar, who is known for his work on the groundbreaking British LGBT+ series “It's A Sin,” said that he wanted viewers to understand that it was “the same love,” as between heterosexual people, according to the Independent.

“Sometimes you have to sort of trick the world into watching these things before they're like, ‘Oh, my God, it was two guys. I just realized,’” Hoar told Inverse. “I think then they might understand that it's all real. It's just the same love.”

The first two episodes of the series had focused on fighting zombies, but the third episode veered off into a self-contained romance between two survivors, Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), both unaffected by the virus.

According to reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, this episode was met with mixed reactions from fans, as many felt it was an unnecessary shift from the video game storyline.

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“If episode 3 was about a heterosexual couple, fans would still be bored and disappointed,” one viewer wrote on Rotten Tomatoes. “Most fans are watching for the adaptation of a video game about fighting zombies, not a full episode about romance. We all know why the episode is receiving high praise, let’s calm down.”

Another wrote, “They didn't respect the existing story in the game with this episode 3, terrible!”

In a move to challenge traditional narrative, Hoar said he sought to subvert expectations and show that the same romantic love can exist between two men — and that audiences would accept it. However, it seems that there are still some viewers who feel that “The Last of Us” has taken a step in an unanticipated direction.