Cast Members Of Video Game ‘The Last Of Us 2’ Receive Death Threats After Portraying Lesbian Relationship

After receiving hateful messages, the Last of Us 2 developer Naughty Dog responded to threats and harassment that its staff has been receiving. Over the weekend the company tweeted, “Although we welcome critical discussion, we condemn any form of harassment or threats directed towards our team and cast. Their safety is our top priority, but we must all work together to root out this type of behavior and maintain a constructive and compassionate discourse.”

The Last of Us 2’s main players are two females. The game also features a same-sex relationship and a trans gender character. 

Due to its diversity, the team that worked on the development of the video game had been receiving threatening messages on their social media platforms. Actor Laura Bailey posted some of the threats directed towards her on Twitter. One of them read, “I’m going to find where you live and slaughter you for what you did.”

Bailey wrote, “Man. I try to only post positive stuff on here… but sometimes this just gets a little overwhelming. I blacked out some of the words cuz, ya know, spoilers. Side note. Thank you to all the people sending me positive messages to balance it out. It means more than I can say.”

The Last of Us 2 director Neil Druckmann also shared his messages. He said, “You can love or hate the game and share your thoughts about it. Unfortunately too many of the messages I’ve been getting are vile, hateful, & violent. Here are just a handful of them (feel it’s important to expose.) Trigger Warning: transphobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, etc.”

Before the game’s release, Druckmann had stated to Radio 1 Newsbeat, “There’s something magical when people see themselves in games, it broadens our audience and I think that’s important.”