The Last of Us Part II Alternate Finale: Screenwriter Halle Gross Explains How Naughty Dog’s Game Could End

As originally conceived, the closing scene of last year’s action The Last of Us: Part II significantly different from the final version – the early version of the episode did not imply special interpretations on the part of the player and more transparently hinted at the fate of the central characters. About this as part of the podcast Script Apart the screenwriter told Halle Grosswho worked on the game with Neil Druckmann

Attention! Below are spoilers for the finale of The Last of Us: Part II. If you have not yet familiarized yourself with the game and are planning to do so, then it is better to refrain from reading this news note.

Recall that the final scene of The Last of Us: Part II takes place on a secluded farm where Ellie, Deanna and little JJ lived after the events in Seattle. In the release version of the project, Ellie walks through an empty house, finds her old guitar, remembers, and then leaves the territory, allowing the players to interpret what happened on their own.

However, in earlier versions of the script, this episode was structured a little differently, Gross said. The scene also took place in an empty house, only instead of a guitar Ellie picked up JJ’s lost toy, hid it in a backpack and soon left the farm. As the screenwriter explains, in this way she and Druckmann hoped to end the story on a lighter note, explaining to the audience that after everything that happened, Ellie went in search of Dina. However, the team eventually abandoned the draft, leaving the final more open.

Release The Last of Us: Part II took place in summer 2023 on console only Playstation 4… Recall that recently Neil Druckmann admitted that already wrote one of the sketches for the storyline of the next part of The Last of Ushowever, right now, according to him, such a game is not in development.

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