Universal Studios has revealed that it is building a haunted house themed around The Last of Us. The attraction, based on the hit video game series The Last of Us, recently adapted into the hit HBO series, will be part of Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights event.
The Last of Us was released on PlayStation 3 in 2013 and is getting a PC port in early 2023. The post-apocalyptic third-person action game was a hit with fans and critics alike. It received an acclaimed but controversial sequel in 2020, titled The Last of Us Part 2. The 2023 HBO adaptation of the first game in the series, starring The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, was a worldwide success. Universal Pictures’ Halloween Horror Nights began in 1991. The event quickly grew into an annual tradition, with Universal Studios parks being replaced with Halloween themes, including haunted houses and scares provided by characters from franchised properties like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
With the massive success of The Last of Us video games and TV series, it’s only a matter of time before Universal Pictures hopes to add images from the popular franchise to its annual Halloween event. The Last of Us will feature haunted houses in parks in Hollywood, California, and Orlando, Florida. Set in the Pittsburgh Quarantine, visitors will walk through a series of eerie corridors and tunnels filled with various monsters infested with mutated fungi from the game, including Clickers, Stalkers, and Runners.
Guests walking through the haunted house will also meet series stars Joel and Ellie as they stalk the creatures and evade a horde of fearsome humans known as the Hunters. Series creator Neil Druckmann issued a statement expressing his excitement that The Last of Us will be joining this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, calling himself a fan and regular at the event. The haunted house will be open on select nights during this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, September 1-October 31.
A second season of the HBO adaptation is currently scheduled to air sometime in 2025, though that may be delayed due to the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America. The show’s third episode, “A Long Time, My Son,” was so well received by fans and critics that even series co-creator Craig Mazin got a letter from legendary director Steven Spielberg, Kudos to him for his work in that episode. Naughty Dog, the developer behind the game, has confirmed that it’s working on a new single-player game, which some have speculated could be The Last of Us Part 3, though that hasn’t been confirmed yet.