Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Fans suspect huge twist was revealed in 'The Last of Us: Part II' trailer

By
The Last of Us Part 2 Reveal Trailer - Playstation Experience 2016
Sony and Naughty Dog have shown only a tiny morsel of what The Last of Us: Part II will offer players, but
Recommended Videos
a number of fans believe they’ve already figured out the game’s big twist.
Related

Warning: Potential spoilers for The Last of Us: Part II to follow!

In the game’s first teaser trailer, we see Ellie sitting alone in a room, playing guitar and singing after what appears to have been a particularly nasty fight. The building she’s playing in is filled with corpses, and blood runs down her face — she doesn’t seem to care. Original protagonist Joel then enters the room.

“You really gonna go through with this?” Joel calmly asks Ellie.

To Reddit user “nerveonya,” this line is particularly important. By only addressing Ellie and not himself as well, it’s implied that Joel will not be taking part in the killing spree that Ellie is about to begin. Why won’t he be taking part?

He could actually be dead.

The user believes that this scene with Joel is simply a vision, and that after his death, Ellie will learn about her rescue at the end of The Last of Us — an event that ultimately saw Joel doom the human race as he chose to keep Ellie, the only known person immune to the fungus wiping out the human race, alive.

“She literally snaps,” the user said. “So she might do things like slaughter an entire house of people, and then just start strumming a guitar while one of the bodies bleeds on the floor next to her, ignoring the gash on her forehead.”

Creative director Neil Druckmann explained at PSX last weekend that The Last of Us: Part II is a story about “hate,” and is played from Ellie’s perspective. Joel’s death could very well be the event that sparked Ellie’s murderous spree.

Both “nerveonya” and other Twitter users also make mention of Joel’s physical appearance in the trailer. He first appears as a dark silhouette, with the warm light of the outside world surrounding him.

Of course, this could all be a bunch of nonsense, and Joel could very well be alive and kicking in the sequel. Other fans have already voiced their opposition to the fan theory. BWestworld writer Halley Gross has been brought on board to help Druckmann with the story, and if you’ve watched the series, you know that almost anything is possible.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Even HBO’s The Last of Us can’t fully master the video game adaptation
Pedro Pascal with his finger to his mouth telling someone to be quiet in a scene from The Last of Us on HBO Max.

There's a pretty good chance that your favorite video game will be made into a movie or TV show.

Thanks in no small part to efforts by PlayStation Productions and the success of movies like Sonic the Hedgehog and TV shows like Arcane, there will only be more adaptations of your favorite video games coming. We’ve come to a sort-of apex with The Last of Us on HBO, a prestige TV take on one of gaming's most celebrated titles. It has legitimate stars, a big budget, Chernobyl’s showrunner at the helm, and is raking in viewers. Only three episodes have aired at the time of this writing, but it’s already poised for success, both in terms of viewership and critical accolades.

Read more
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."

Read more
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.

Read more