Rainn Wilson has always worn his opinions on his sleeve, so of course the actor was going to have words after watching HBO’s The Last of Us, which is a story as contentious as any divisive piece of art we’ve ever seen.
The actor, best known for portraying Dwight Schrute in the American version of The Office, recently took to Twitter to show his dissatisfaction with Hollywood over what he perceives to be a clear “anti-Christian bias.” He made this remark after watching the penultimate episode of The Last of Us, wherein an atheist-turned-preacher called David turns out to be a sadistic aggressor who doesn’t have an issue with cannibalism.
In Wilson’s own words:
There does seem to be a tendency in Hollywood to depict preachers as “horrific villains,” especially if they’re shepherds of a particular flock in the post-apocalypse, but one could argue that David’s newfound belief is simply an affectation of his insane character, rather than a direct and conscious jab at religion.
Still, Wilson is doubling down on his stance, further explaining his point in a thread and making sure that everyone knows that he’s not even a Christian.
It’s safe to say that The Last of Us is not a conservative story, and depicting a priest as a sinister villain would be the least of people’s concerns if they tend to be more religious-minded than the rest of the viewers.
Still, there is an argument to be made about stories rehashing tired tropes, and this definitely appears to be an instance of that. If most of your audience thought this guy was going to be evil, and he turned out to be evil, then you know you might have a problem with your narrative.
