With the upcoming 2023 release of the HBO tv show adaption, starring The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal, and the remake coming later this year, the hype for the groundbreaking The Last of Us isn't set to die down any time soon.
The creative minds behind The Last of Us franchise took the time to put a lot of love and care into these games, resulting in acclaim for its story-telling and LGBTQ+ representation. But some of the initial ideas and plans would have changed the game entirely.
Joel's Character Inspiration
Troy Baker, the voice actor of Joel, says he was going for a Llewelyn Moss type of person for Joel. Llewelyn Moss, played by Outer Ranges' Josh Brolin, is a character from the infamous film No Country For Old Man.
Like Llewelyn, he wanted Joel to be stoic and locked up with his emotions. But as the story development went on, he expanded Joel's character to be more emotionally led. This was a good choice, since it gives the audience a chance to grow with Joel as he's bonding with Ellie throughout the game.
The Sounds of the Infected
There are many types of infected in the series, and they make pretty unique sounds that would make anyone's skin crawl.
The noises for the female clickers were made by Misty Lee, a voice actress that utilized the back of her throat for the nauseating echo sound. The head of the audio department for the game was able to imitate this sound and became the male version of the creatures. Even a sound designer used and remixed a recording of his baby to get the screeching sounds of the bloaters. Through these unique ways of voice acting, they were able to capture the remains of humanity in these infected beings.
Tess as the Villain
Originally in the early development of the game, Tess was supposed to be the villain. Like in the finished product, she'd have been working alongside Joel until the death of her brother, which she subsequently blames on him. What would follow would be her stalking them across the country for a year, and almost shooting Joel before being killed by Ellie.
This was scrapped by the team after they realized her motivations weren't strong enough to justify blaming Joel and decided to go with her being a companion to him instead. This is a relief anyway since Marlene is a more compelling antagonist (who arguably deserves her own game), that had a justifiable reason for doing the things that she did.
Jurassic Park
There are a lot of moments in the game that pulled on people's heartstrings. One scene, in particular, was a fan favorite among fans, and it was when Joel and Ellie met the giraffes before making it to the firefly base. This beautiful stop the two made in the game was actually inspired by the 1993 movie Jurassic Park. Naughty Dog, the game company behind the series, took inspiration from the main characters gazing at the peaceful brachiosaurus' roaming the lands.
Which was a perfect pick since giraffes are similar to the long-necked reptiles in many ways. Through this, the writers were able to create a scene of calm before the storm.
The Plot Changes of Part 2
After the production of The Last of Us, the team immediately started working on Part 2. There were many ideas that they scrapped before they decided on the final product. They thought about keeping Joel alive and spending more time in Jackson, and having Abby be a bigger role later on.
But they scrapped it since they thought it would take too long to get to the climax of the story. This change is something that made the moral of hate and vengeance hit harder for the players since they lost someone so important early in the game.
Rat King
In Part 2, we are introduced to Abby, the "villain" in the story. She goes through a lot of changes throughout the game and one of those changes involved her betraying her own base, WLF, to protect the people she grew to love. WLF did not take that too kindly and kept her captive, which eventually led her to sneak out of the hospital building they were stationed at. But this was not without obstacles.
In order to escape the hospital, she had to battle the Rat King, a creature that was composed of multiple types of infected. It actually took three actors to create this anomaly, with two actors on the bottom and one stacked on top of them.
The World Without Us
In most apocalyptic video games designers go for barren lands and bleak colors. But the team behind The Last of Us wanted to go for a more unique setting.
Druckmann says their team took inspiration from the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman to create the world where Joel and Ellie roamed. They wanted to show that even without a lot of humans and society around, the world will stay change and thrive, whether that be in our favor or not.
Dina's a Youtuber
Dina is a character that is introduced in the second installment of the game, and she is Ellie's companion and romantic partner throughout the story. Not a lot of fans may know that it took two people to create her in-game. The voice actor for Dina is Shannon Woodward, an experienced actor in the entertainment business.
But her character model was actually based on a YouTuber named Cascina Caradonna, who was hired by the team for this character. She even has videos of her playing the game, which is pretty surreal!
Infected Animals
Naughty Dog wanted to make it pretty clear at the beginning of the first game that these were not zombies, but infected people who now ruled the Earth. This was shown through the way the fungus would gradually grow and transform humans into different stages of infection. They even went to the possibility of animals being infected.
This included concept arts of infected lions, gorillas, and even elephants. But this was cut since they thought it would make the story too busy. In hindsight, this was a great decision, since the giraffe scene would have been a definite no-no if this idea went through.
Joel's Death
At the start of The Last of Us Part 2, we are introduced to Abby, who seems to be an innocent traveler that happens to run across Joel and Tommy. But as most players know, once the two reveal their names to her and her squad they discover that this is the man that killed her father. In the end, Joel is beaten to death with a golf club before Ellie can save him.
For a lot of players, this is not only a shocking scene but a pitiful one. Naughty Dog's cast discussed how they did this on purpose, just to signify how her act of obsession did not solve anything for her. This mirrors the act of obsession Ellie goes through, when she searches for Abby. Both of these acts of obsession do nothing for the two characters and doesn't bring them peace, which is the message Naughty Dog was trying to convey.