Whatever happens for The Last Of Us series, no one can deny the greatness of the original. Recently there have been rumblings of a sequel to The Last of Us. In fact, voice actor Nolan North recently spoke to the audience at Metro Con and said, “For now I know they’re doing Last of Us 2, but my character in The Last of Us kind of met an untimely demise.”
Although fellow voice actor Troy Baker who played Joel states, “Okay, so I’m… And by the way I know nothing,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re gonna do another one or not. If we do, then I trust Neil [Druckmann, creative director] and Bruce [Straley, game director] and everyone at Naughty Dog to tell a story that needs to be told.” Troy Baker probably knows more about what is going on with the franchise given the importance of his role, but if a sequel is in the works, what happens to Ellie and Joel?
There are multiple different directions the story could go and for that reason, the ending of The Last Of Us must be explored. If you have not yet played and finished The Last Of Us here is your chance to click away.
Seriously, from this point on there will be full blown spoilers.
Given that Joel single-handedly destroys the Fireflies and robs humanity of their greatest chance for a cure thus far, where else can the story go? Some have eluded to doing a prequel to The Last of Us. In this we would see the years from when Joel lost his daughter Sarah and how he survived twenty years until his fateful encounter with Ellie. The only problem with this scenario is that the story would not include Ellie, who arguably is more important to the story than Joel. Perhaps this could be explored in another DLC story similar to how Ellie got a prequel before meeting Joel. That would help flesh out his character even more and maybe provide more context for his relationship with Ellie.
Another possibility would probably continue the story of Ellie and Joel right after the events of the first game. Perhaps the survivors of the massacre of the Fireflies are still hunting after Ellie for the cure she may contain. Ellie learning the secret behind her escape, runs away from Joel. Joel must find Ellie and continue their adventures across America looking for another safe heaven. While this could certainly be expanded upon, it is probably both the most likely and most boring direction the story could go. On one hand, the relationship between Ellie and Joel is stronger than ever and it would be great to see those characters together once again. On the other, it seems like an artificial way to extend the story and feels really lazy. After the great storytelling in The Last Of Us, hopefully Naughty Dog would choose a different direction.
Finally, the most outlandish idea would be to focus on Ellie twenty years later, after the presumed death of Joel. After the prequel really focused more on Ellie and her personality, it opened the doors to exploring much more of her character. Perhaps Joel and Ellie are on the run and someone finally catches up to Joel and he dies. Ellie then questions her reasons to continue to live, but finds new love and must protect that. Joel’s death could happen organically through the story and then the story can be fully be given over to Ellie. Naughty Dog and Sony could even sell the game as a continuation to the story, but then add in a major plot twist such as this and really turn the story on its head. Joel was needed to push the story forward and help Ellie grow, but games like The Walking Dead prove that video games can be given over to the female lead and still be as riveting.
There is a good chance that The Last Of Us 2 is in early development. Given Naughty Dog is in the campaign of hyping Uncharted 4 and finishing that game, it will likely be next E3 at the earliest that we hear something about the continuing adventures of Ellie and Joel. What direction do you think The Last Of Us story should take?