A serious plot level that might play into The Last of Us: Half 3 has been revealed by a former Naughty Canine developer.
Talking by way of the podcast KiwiTalkz, ex-Naughty Canine lighting artist Gabriel Betancourt has mentioned a stunning dialog he as soon as had with franchise creator Neil Druckmann — who revealed that foremost character Ellie was only one of a “congregation” of individuals with immunity to the zombie-like cordyceps an infection.
Ellie’s seemingly distinctive immunity performs an enormous position within the first The Last of Us sport, and significantly in its ending — the place Joel is compelled to decide on between saving her or saving humanity. The affect of his determination then reverberates by way of The Last of Us Half 2, and is one thing Druckmann himself has added additional context. Last 12 months, Druckmann confirmed {that a} treatment for humanity would positively have been made, had Joel chosen in another way — info that upended years of fan debate, and cut up the collection’ fanbase anew.
Understandably, then, followers have reacted in shock to this newest tidbit of info — which discusses Ellie being far much less distinctive than she (or Joel) believed.
“I felt just like the pillar of the story was Ellie being the one individual with the treatment,” Betancourt mentioned. “And so defending her, and ensuring she acquired to the place she must go to avoid wasting humanity — as a result of with out the treatment life is hopeless — that is what created the gravity of that world. That was the context that made The Last of Us particular.
“The gravitas of that’s actually centered round her being the one one [with a cure],” he continued, recalling a dialog he then had with Druckmann the place the latter revealed that this actually was not the case.
“Neil mentioned ‘Yeah, however a number of persons are immune. There’s a spot, there’s an entire congregation of that sort of individual, and what I need to do is to tel a extra refined story. I need to inform a narrative with a number of characters and type of broaden on that’.”
In fact, it needs to be acknowledged that this dialog befell years in the past (Betancourt departed Naughty Canine over a decade again, following work on The Last of Us: Left Behind), and Druckmann’s plans for the collection might have modified. Nonetheless, followers have rapidly begun debating what it would imply for the collection — and whether or not we’ll ultimately see this “congregation” someday.
“As completely happy as I’m to sit down again and let ND prepare dinner up no matter they need… I’m vehemently towards this,” The Last of Us fan suffywuffy wrote by way of reddit. “Half of what makes Joel’s [decision] so impactful within the sport is that Ellie is that 1 in 7 billion messiah kind determine. Having a number of immune individuals/an entire neighborhood drastically impacts the emotional stakes of the ending of P1.
“I already disliked what the present did when it exhibits how/why Ellie is immune,” they continued, “as she is now one thing that may be recreated by somebody wicked/determined sufficient.”
HBO’s The Last of Us TV collection has given a motive for why Ellie is immune, although the circumstances are fairly distinctive. Right here, it is defined that Ellie obtained a small quantity of the coryceps an infection from her mom whereas nonetheless within the womb, although not sufficient to contaminate her. This has supplied her simply sufficient for the cordyceps to since deal with her as already contaminated — and never reinfect her once more.
This newest information comes only a week after Druckmann shared some of his first ever sketches for the characters that turned Joel and Ellie — and recommended that the story of their world nonetheless wasn’t over.
“Cleansing out the storage in the present day and came across my unique sketches from 2003 for a sport pitch a couple of man, his surrogate daughter, and a trek throughout a damaged America,” Druckmann wrote. “Been a wild journey,” he continued. “Grateful for each half of it, particularly the few stops that stay on the street forward.”
Druckmann has by no means dominated out making a 3rd chapter of the saga, and Naughty Canine’s official Grounded 2: Making The Last of Us Half 2 documentary even ends with Druckmann stating that he feels “there’s yet one more chapter to this story.” Ellie lastly assembly with a “congregation” of different immune survivors seems like a chapter value telling.
Within the meantime, Naughty Canine is busy constructing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which Druckmann is directing. The studio additionally has a second sport in manufacturing that is being directed by Shaun Escayg, who beforehand helmed Uncharted: The Misplaced Legacy.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social