10 Differences Between 'The Walking Dead' Zombies and 'The Last of Us' Zombies

Take a closer look at the dreaded TV counterpart...

As the series premieres on The Last of Us, an adaptation of the hit zombie apocalypse video game, fans can't help but draw comparisons to TV's biggest epic zombie series with 11 seasons, The Walking Dead, which takes audiences into the world of the dead Walk among the few survivors.

As zombies begin to appear in season one of The Last of Us, there are some notable differences between the undead in the two series, from simple names to intricate details of how they spread.

1 Names

Although people who are brought back from the dead are referred to as zombies in the fiction world, the term dates back to its use in 1978's Dawn of the Dead after 1978's Night of the Living Dead, referring to the creatures only as "ghouls" and "Carnivore."

While neither The Walking Dead nor The Last of Us refer to their creatures as "zombies", they do have different names in each series. TWD mostly refers to them as "walkers", occasionally called "vagrants" or "biters" by groups other than Rick, and TLOU calls them "infected", later classifying different types as "answerers" , "expanders" and "runners", among others.

2 Types

Zombies are often referred to as humans who have risen from the dead and crave human flesh, but the two shows portray them very differently. In TWD, zombies remain the same throughout the series, just roaming and biting their victims as they decay over time.

On TLOU, zombies are defined by the different types they become. Some of the most common are runners, newly infected and looking the most human-like, and clickers that have evolved over the years to look like aliens with bursting brains and are known for making their signature clicking noises.

3 How It Spreads

In any zombie novel, it's clear that disease can be transmitted through bites, but each series handles the details differently. TWD shocked the characters and the audience when it was discovered that everyone in the world had been infected and would turn around once they died.

Instead of a deep rooted infection, TLOU took the root of the fungus and explained in the first episode how the fungus takes over the brain and turns its host into a capturer, which then grows fungus from its head. The program also ensures that multiple fungal bodies can be linked, One woke up dozens of others.

4 Evolution

Zombie evolution is a different direction for the two shows, starting with the way TWD's zombies don't do much evolution other than continue to rot. When zombies start to evolve into what they once were, with the ability to climb and pick up things, the show loses the opportunity to delve into it with only a few episodes left.

TLOU refutes this idea, but shows the stages of a zombie after a person is infected, starting from looking human, to growing fungus, then turning into an alien, and then being completely overwhelmed by the Cordyceps, looking scarier than human .

5 Scratches

A small but major difference between the two zombies is the effect scratches have on uninfected. On TWD, it's been clear from the start that simply getting scratched by a zombie can infect someone and cause them to eventually die and turn around like they've been bitten.

On TLOU, only bites (or if you're playing the game, it includes spores) can cause infection, allowing people to fight zombies with their bodies without worrying about the possibility of being infected by zombies a scratch.

6 Rapid Turning

The way an infected human turns into a zombie seems to vary from show to show, but overall, TLOU stays the same, revealing in the first episode that no one survives being bitten for days unless you're Ellie .

On TWD, turns seem to be based on specific characters and stories being told, some people turn into zombies immediately after death, while purposeful characters like Bob Stookey or most destructively Carl, have a few days Live with them and take a bite before succumbing to it.

7 Remaining Human

A major difference between the two shows is the way the characters deal with the idea or the truth behind it, namely whether or not a person stays inside after being turned into a zombie. TWD explores this heavy theme briefly with Lizzie, a child born in the apocalypse who believes that zombies still have people inside them, and that most characters see zombies as death and danger.

On TLOU, despite being dangerous and needing to be killed to survive, most people do believe that since it's just a fungus that infects humans, the people they once were are still inside them and They are just sick.

8 How To Kill Them

There are very different ways to kill zombies in each universe, but only one figured out something. In TWD, even though Rick wakes up from his doomsday coma, it doesn't take long for him to discover that the only way to defeat the zombies is to kill their brains.

Speaking of TLOU, while the brain is one option for killing zombies, it's not the only one. A few other things, including hitting the torso and flames, can defeat zombies without specifically killing their brains.

9 The Death Factor

One of the biggest differences between each show's zombies is the death factor. In TWD, turning into a zombie is as inevitable as death, and when anyone dies, they turn into a zombie, whether bitten or not.

On TLOU, the infection is not yet ingrained in the human body, which means a person can die without turning into a zombie. In contrast to TWD's zombies who have no idea how they become infected, this universe's zombies become what they ingest while they're still alive.

10 The Cure

The two shows seem to have different ideas When it comes to a cure for the zombie apocalypse, start with the fact that TWD never had one. While there are multiple theories that Rick was immune all along and could be used for healing, the show neglected to delve into an ever-present idea.

However, TLOU revolves around the possibility of Ellie being cured due to her immunity to the infection. The show revealed a treatment plan that only Ellie could complete, but it never saw the light of day due to the creation of a treatment that involved killing Ellie in the process.