Deleted epilogue scene shown at The Last of Us: One Night Live event

By Michael Lee July 29, 2014

latest draft last us movie script done table read actors of joel and ellie

The Last of Us: One Night Live event, a theatrically performed version of the game, took place on the evening of July 28 in Los Angeles. If you haven’t played through Naughty Dog’s 2013 award-winner, you may want to stop reading right here to avoid spoilers.

Still here? Good. In addition to a staged reading of the game’s cutscenes featuring all of the original voice actors (minus the whole “David” sequence and his actor– no spoilers), attendees were also shown a previously unseen epilogue written by the game’s writer and co-director Neil Druckmann. You can see most of the event in the video below, but the epilogue wasn’t actually filmed.

Recommended Videos

The performance was streamed on Twitch, and it’s a good watch for those familiar with the game’s story. There are too many gaps between each scene for it to make total sense to those that haven’t played, though.

What fans didn’t anticipate was Druckmann revealing an epilogue scene that had been written, but was ultimately cut from the game. He asked that no one record the scene, which features Joel and Ellie some time after the events of the game, and added that this coda was meant as a “goodbye” to the game’s main characters.

Some of the details gleaned from descriptions of the scene on NeoGAF conflict, but all speak of a scene in which Joel tells Ellie that Tommy is trying to set him up with a woman named Esther, while Ellie acts distant towards Joel. To break the tension, Joel brings out a gift for Ellie, a guitar. He plays her a song (the lyrics for which reportedly relate to the journey he and Ellie shared), cracks a joke, and hands Ellie the guitar before leaving. She strums it once, and the scene ends.

The live event isn’t the only piece of news for The Last of Us this week, as Comic Con International in San Diego brought the news that Sam Raimi is producing the planned live-action film, and that they’ve spoken to Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams about the Ellie role. This influx of press coincides with the release of The Last of Us Remastered, the PlayStation 4 version of the game, which hits store shelves July 29. We just finished up a review of this new version of the game; read it here.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada which is quite possibly the best city in the world. Graduated from NYU with an MA…

Entertainment

The Last of Us TV show will return for Season 2 at HBO

Ellie stares at Joel and Tess in the The Last of Us TV show.

HBO has confirmed that the critically acclaimed The Last of Us TV show will return for a second season.
This announcement comes from a tweet posted after only two of the series' episodes have aired. That said, the show garnered critical acclaim, broke some HBO viewership records, and doesn't yet appear to incorporate many plot elements from The Last of Us Part II, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the series is continuing. According to the tweet, the second season of the show will air on HBO Max (or whatever that service ends up becoming later this year).
https://twitter.com/TheLastofUsHBO/status/1619017515581018112
No release window, story, or casting announcements were made in relation to The Last of Us Season 2, although that isn't very surprising as the show's first season is still airing. That said, it seems extremely likely that it would follow the plot of The Last of Us Part II, which sees Ellie go on a quest for revenge after an extremely traumatic event that we won't spoil here. While the second game in this series proved to be much more divisive than the first, there's certainly no shortage of dramatic moments and intriguing plot developments for Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to adapt to television in another season. The Last of Us is currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max every Sunday night. Digital Trends gave the series a four-star review, with Alex Welch writing that The Last of Us is a "lovingly made, often emotionally riveting adaptation of what is one of the most treasured titles in video game history."

Gaming

New art for The Last of Us multiplayer spinoff teases its seaside setting

The second piece of The Last of Us multiplayer concept art shows two players walking toward a beached yacht.

Naughty Dog reaffirmed that it will share more details about The Last of Us' multiplayer game this year and released new concept art for it. The image gives a better sense of its setting, with a massive boat serving as a key set piece.
The new image shows two players as they approach a giant beached yacht. Rusted vehicles, palm trees, and a flooded street surround them, suggesting that this is in some sort of seaside town. Earlier concept art for the game seemed to indicate a San Francisco setting, though it's unclear if the new image is from the same location.
While Naughty Dog hasn't commented on exactly what exactly this concept art is supposed to show, it seems like this is one of the maps where players will be able to fight the Infected and potentially other players. It also looks reminiscent of some of the final areas of The Last of Us Part II.
This reassurance of its development and concept art came as part of a blog post on Naughty Dog's website today meant to kick off the series' tenth anniversary. "With a team led by Vinit Agarwal, Joe Pettinati, and Anthony Newman, the project is shaping up to be a fresh, new experience from our studio, but one rooted in Naughty Dog’s passion for delivering incredible stories, characters, and gameplay," Neil Druckmann writes in the blog post.
This multiplayer game has been a long time coming, as it was originally meant to release alongside The Last of Us Part II but was separated to become a standalone release. We haven't heard that much about it since then, only getting some concept art at Summer Game Fest 2022. As this new concept art looks like it's from a very different location than the previous art, it seems like this multiplayer game could have multiple maps.
While it still doesn't have a release window, we should hear more about it by the end of 2023.

Gaming

From The Last of Us to Immortality, these are 2022’s most innovative games

A video game character standing in front of text that says 2022 Most Innovative Games.

What makes the video game industry so exciting is that it’s still relatively young. Developers are still routinely discovering new ways to turn the medium on its head, redefining the idea of what a game is by bucking against trends. Though major productions like God of War Ragnarok are no doubt impressive, the most groundbreaking titles are often the less obvious ones.

That was the case in 2022, which saw developers entirely deconstructing some fundamentals about games. In some cases, that was expressed through new approaches to gameplay, creating experiences that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen from the medium. Others were even more high-level, challenging us to think about who certain projects are for. From a massive remake project to the tiniest action game, these were some of 2022’s most innovative games.
The Last of Us Part I