The Last of Us fans proclaim terrifying Bloater monster a new daddy icon: ‘Give me them spores NOW’
Adam Basil has turned The Last of Us’ Bloater into a “sex icon”. (HBO/Getty)
The gays aren’t afraid of a little cordyceps, as long as they receive it directly from The Last of Us’ terrifying new monster, the “big boy” Bloater.
In this week’s episode of The Last of Us, entitled “Endure and Survive”, protagonists Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) meet Henry (Lamar Johnson) and his little brother Sam (Keivonn Woodard) as they try and flee from territorial leader Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey).
As the foursome are confronted by Kathleen and her army during their great escape, an explosion causes the ground to open up, and a hoard of infected are let loose.
One of those to rise out of the flames is the Bloater, infamous in The Last of Us video game for its frankly grotesque appearance. Crusted over by how long they have been inflicted with the fungal brain infection, Bloaters are stronger than their other living-dead counterparts, and able to pull a human head from its shoulders in mere seconds.
Naturally, the gays have claimed the mushroomy muscle man as their own, and its largely down to the guy behind the get-up.
The Bloater is played by British stuntman Adam Basil, known for his eclectic roles in everything from Game of Thrones to No Time To Die, Beauty and the Beast to Venom. But when he’s not tearing off heads out on set, Basil can be found on Instagram, perpetually posing topeless and serving zaddy realness.
As soon as the gays found out that the 6’6 stuntman was behind the Bloater, they thew caution to the wind, begging for the monster to step on their necks.
“I need his bloatussy!! Lemme suck on them cordycepussys,” lusted one fan, and it seems the sentiment is unanimous.
“Give me them spores NOW,” one person demanded, while a third said: “I wanna have a sloppy make out session with both of them.”
Summarising, another said: “Daddy bloater.”
Basil himself is feeling the love, telling Entertainment Weekly that he’s had people sliding into his DMs – no doubt offering themselves up as a sacrifice for the Bloater’s pleasure.
“He seems to be a bit of a sex icon,” Basil said. “He’s captured a lot of people’s imaginations. Someone asked me if I’d come to their wedding. I’ve had people sending me love messages.
“He really brought out something in people that I don’t think even they knew they had. He’s the big daddy mushroom, I think there’s been a [meme].”
It’s an impressive feat to turn a whole lot of man like Basil into a whole lot of mushroom like the Bloater, but The Last of Us team made it happen.
The spine-tinglingly realistic costume, which weighed approximately 40 kilos, was built by prosthetics designer Barrie Gower, with a helping handful of on-screen special effects courtesy of VFX experts Alex Wang, Simon Jung and Dennis Yoo.
With the Bloater suit on or off, Basil has well and truly won the hearts of gays worldwide.
The Last of Us airs every Sunday night at 9pm ET on HBO in the US, and in the UK, Monday at 2am GMT on Sky and NOW, and 9pm on Sky Atlantic.
