The Last Of Us debuts horrifying new infected type

I am beaming.

Listen, I know that The Last of Us’ second season is set to be a challenging one emotionally - I’ve played the game umpteen times - but for now, I feel nothing but joy after watching that premiere episode.

I cannot fault it; it was slightly different, yes, but yet totally faithful at the same time.

And it’s here that I’ll warn that episode one spoilers lie ahead.

Isabela Merced’s casting as Dina? Perfect. That glimpse into the varying personalities of the Salt Lake characters? 10/10. Joel absolutely decking Seth? Get him king.

I could go on and on and on and on.

The bottle? The ‘employee of the month’ safe code Easter egg? The Greenplace Market looking EXACTLY the same?

The episode reintroduced the infected which, I have to say, was long-awaited as they did not appear in the final two episodes of season one.

‘Future Days’ reacquainted viewers with clickers and runners, whilst also welcoming a terrifying new type of infected: stalkers.

ICYMI: You can check out the trailer for The Last of Us’ second season below.

Of course, for those of us who have played the game, stalkers aren’t a new concept, but they are within the show.

For those who are show watchers-only, stalkers essentially sit between runners and clickers on the infected scale.

As a reminder, runners are newly infected whilst bloaters are the longest infected variant.

Stalkers are similar to runners in that they still look somewhat human, unlike the totally fungus-blinded clickers, but they act very differently.

Stalkers have fungal tendrils on the top of their heads that lend them a similar level of echolocation as the clickers, but they maintain the speed and ferocity (and sight) of the runners.

As such, stalkers combine these traits to, well, stalk.

Acutely aware of where nearby humans are situated, stalkers will scurry, hide, and follow before making their grand attack - which is exactly what we see when Ellie encounters her first stalker in ‘Future Days’.

In Naughty Dog’s video games, stalkers are encountered several times across both titles but here, it’s a first for the characters.

Ellie returns to Jackson and informs the commune’s council about her findings.

I have to say, it adds a new level of horror to the story. You become quite nonchalant in the game because you’re so used to encountering all of the different types of infected.

But imagine fighting mindless varieties and then suddenly realising that another type exists that’s far more intelligent.

You’d suddenly start panicking.

Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have teased that we’ll be seeing way more infected this season than we did previously and I feel like an excited kid on Christmas.

Bring it on.