By holding steady with audience approval ratings in the high 90s episode after episode, HBO’s hit show The Last of Us is quickly becoming one of the highest rated TV shows around. It’s often been touted as one of the best live-action adaptations of a video game and has drawn a wide range of approval from gamers and television buffs alike.

It’s certainly a solid show led by the brilliant Pedro Pascal of Narcos and Game of Thrones fame, and the highly talented young actress Bella Ramsey. Ramsey, of course, also became a fan favorite among Game of Thrones fans for her popular but somewhat moody portrayal of the ultra-sassy young noblewoman in the show known as Lyanna Mormont.

Between the two leads, a solid script, and many other great supporting performances in the show, The Last of Us is definitely enjoying a ton of popularity and favor among audiences. However, despite all these positives, the show often seems to combine and play on two other famous tropes that were just as well-loved by audiences and fans of pop culture.

As good as the show is, it’s hard to ignore the fact that it bears some striking similarities to the 2017 hit film Logan and the massively popular TV franchise The Walking Dead. Once you recognize this, it leaves a burning question — is The Last of Us only popular because it’s basically just an amalgamation of Logan and The Walking Dead?

Logan and The Walking Dead

20th Century Fox / AMC

Logan and The Walking Dead were both highly rated and well-loved by audiences. Logan was the last standalone spinoff for the hugely popular X-men character, Wolverine. On the other hand, The Walking Dead was a TV show that was also a fan favorite but was also based on comic books that led to its own TV franchise featuring multiple spinoffs from the original show.

Related: Why Hugh Jackman Wants Wolverine to Continue Past Logan

The world of The Walking Dead is essentially one in which society is plunged into a zombie apocalypse where the remaining humans have to constantly fight for their survival through multiple gory battles with these undead creatures. On the other hand, Wolverine is a fan favorite character from The X-men franchise whose long and epic story comes to a rousingly tragic end in Logan, when his own world is plunged into a constant fight for survival.

Similarities with The Last of Us

Warner Bros. Television

The Last of Us has some glaring similarities with Logan and The Waking Dead. While it’s based on a video game and not a comic book franchise, the chief elements of its plot may as well have been borrowed wholesale from the other two. In that respect, it also features a constant fight for survival in the aftermath of a kind of post-apocalyptic world.

On the other hand, Logan was critically acclaimed for the nuanced way that it touched on the humanistic aspects of a very complex character. It displayed both the mental and physical grit of Wolverine seen through his grumpy and irritable nature that is often softened by his eventually touching bond with the other main character, known as X-23.

An almost flagrantly similar motif is used in the interactions between the two main characters in The Last of Us. Given all of this, here’s a look at some direct similarities and other ways that The Last of Us seems to have merged the storylines of Logan with The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead vs The Last of Us

AMC

It isn’t hard to draw some direct comparisons between these two shows. While The Walking Dead takes place in the aftermath of an actual zombie apocalypse, The Last of Us only barely changes this trope. In the latter, there has been a worldwide pandemic caused by a viral fungal infection. This causes infected persons to mutate into creatures that are, well, pretty much zombies too.

Both feature the fight for survival suffered by survivors and the constant battles they must face in order to make it through the post-apocalyptic hellscape, where the zombies pretty much cause the entire fabric of normal society to be ripped apart. Lastly, both heavily feature some pretty violent and gory scenes between survivors fighting against their zombie counterparts.

Logan and X-23 vs Joel and Ellie

2Oth Century Fox

Logan perfectly captured the duality of Wolverine as a tough as nails antihero who actually has a truly soft and caring nature underneath his rough exterior. His interactions with X-23 often casts him as the reluctant, albeit effective, protector of a feisty little girl who is more than capable of protecting herself, but still secretly yearns for a deeper relationship too.

In The Last of Us, one of the main tropes is the edgy and complex bond between Joel (Pascal’s character) and Ellie (played by Ramsey). Joel, at times against his own wishes, has to protect and look out for Ellie. Ellie is openly hostile toward him and the two sometimes share a fractious relationship.

Related: Wolverine Movies in Order: How to Watch the X-Men Character Chronologically and By Release Date

The dynamic between Logan and X-23 is basically exactly the same, and along the way also develops into a deeper and more meaningful bond. Another similarity between the two is the father-figure that the Wolverine has to be to X-23. Of course, in Logan, X-23 is later revealed to actually be the daughter of Wolverine. In The Last of Us, Joel has lost his biological daughter and Ellie, in some ways, becomes a surrogate to fill this hole in his life.

The last, but very obvious similarity between Logan and The Last of Us is that both Wolverine and Joel are both at an advanced age and serially weakened by past injuries. For Wolverine, it’s through the fact that his adamantium skeleton has begun poisoning him over the years and causing him to slowly lose his ability to heal; for Joel, it’s due to his weakened hearing and brittle knees brought on by previous injuries. Despite this, both must constantly fight against their own ailing health to protect the special little girl they’ve been tasked with protecting against their wills.

It’s Still a Great Show

Warner Bros. Television 

So there you have it. The Last of Us is no doubt an awesome show that will likely endure and remain popular with audiences for a long time. The great performances by its leads and the on-screen bond slowly growing between them week by week make it a very watchable show aside from all the action and gore.

There are certainly some very stark similarities between the series and how it seems to have amalgamated the plots and main tropes of two other highly popular titles. Despite this, The Last of Us is still a fantastically entertaining watch and well worth all the popularity among audiences it’s currently enjoying, even if it’s not that original.