10 Facts About The Last of Us Series You Didn't Know
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VOICE OVER: Aaron Brown
WRITTEN BY: Aaron Brown
"The Last of Us" has some diehard fans, but even they can't know everything about the series. For this list, we'll be looking at “behind the scenes” and “making of” facts, as well as a couple Easter Eggs we've found within "The Last of Us" and its sequel. Our list includes Tess' original role, an Alternate Ending to the first game, Neil Druckmann's pitch to George Romero, and more!
Script written by Aaron Brown
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re doing our best to survive the Cordyceps and bring you 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About The Last of Us Series. For this list, we’ll be looking at “behind the scenes” and “making of” facts, as well as a couple Easter Eggs we’ve found within the games themselves. What’s a little-known fact about your favorite video game series? Let us know down in the comments.
When developing any narrative, tying up the story at the end is key, and nowhere is this truer than in the interactive media where player action is at the heart of the story. Like many other video games, The Last of Us had numerous endings before the final one gamers received was settled on, but one of them was relatively close to what we ended up playing. In an alternate ending, during Joel’s confrontation in the operating room in his attempt to rescue Ellie, he takes one of the doctors hostage before being confronted by Marlene. In the end, Joel still executes all of the staff and Marlene, but the final confrontation with Marlene just didn’t feel as personal as what we ended up getting. And that’s not even mentioning the potential musical number director Neil Druckmann surprised the cast with to alleviate the tension of the scene.
The Cordyceps infection is nothing short of horrifying, and the developers at Naughty Dog put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the infected you encounter were as grounded as possible within the game’s world. Besides the screams and clicking sounds of the infected that haunt gamers’ subconsciousness, the various levels of mutation are all unique and related to how long the person has been infected. From the infancy of the infection creating the runners and stalkers to those who have been infected for longer such as the clickers and bloaters, there’s no shortage of horrors to deal with in the 20 years since the outbreak began. In The Last of Us Part 2, players encountered a new deadly variation that took 3 mo-cap actors to bring to life: the Rat King. This terrifying stage of infection occurs when groups of infected cluster together and form one hideous abomination.
At one time there was a prevailing theory that the world of The Last of Us and Naughty Dog’s other flagship franchise took place within the same universe and all of this stemmed from a newspaper sitting on the bar in the opening chapter of Uncharted 3. As development of Uncharted 3 was wrapping up, the team hid an Easter Egg in the newspaper alluding to an unknown outbreak they hoped would be found to coincide with the reveal of The Last of Us. However, The Last of Us’s reveal ended up being delayed, but the Easter Egg remained in the game. Thankfully, it wasn’t noticed until afterward, so none were the wiser. The Last of Us paid tribute back to this Easter Egg, as during their escape from Pittsburg, Joel and Ellie travel though O’Sullivans, a near exact replica of the bar in Uncharted 3 and a fitting tribute to the man himself, Victor Sullivan.
Circling back to Uncharted and The Last of Us taking place in the same universe, although this was proven otherwise by Uncharted 4’s conclusion, there are a couple nods in The Last of Us Part 2 that tip the hat to not only Nathan Drake but Naughty Dog’s other long dormant property, Jak and Daxter. When exploring the outskirts of Seattle, Ellie and Dina can enter a dilapidated bank and upon searching the vault and its many lock boxes can find Nathan Drake’s ring with the familiar insignia “Sic Parvis Magna”. The second “Strange Artifact” has appeared in the Uncharted series before so it’s nice that it’s getting a shoutout in Naughty Dog’s newest blockbuster series. When playing as Abby in the latter half of the game, simply hiding inside a table in the building across from the Ruby Dragon is a Precursor Orb from the Jak and Daxter series.
Game creators inserting themselves into their works is nothing new - looking at you, Hideo - but the developers at Naughty Dog decided to have some fun inserting themselves into the game. In the outskirts of Seattle while searching for gasoline, Ellie will find one of her collectible trading cards hidden in a filing cabinet that somehow survived when the rest of the building did not. Inside is the card for Dr. Uckmann which features both the name and likeness of series creator and director Neill Druckmann. This isn’t the only familiar face found in Part 2 either, early on in Jackson, Ellie will pass an old man strumming his guitar for the locals; this is the game’s musical composer Gustavo Santaolalla who is responsible for the series’ iconic soundtrack.
After the resounding success of The Last of Us, the teams behind the masterpieces put on a one night live show with the actors and creators to present live performances of some of the game’s most iconic scenes. One of these moments which was just for those in attendance and wasn't filmed was an epilogue that was originally planned for the full game before being cut. The scene featured Joel and Ellie settling into Jackson and Joel recounting the story of Tommy trying to set him up with one of the residents there. Joel then plays Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” for Ellie and finally gifts her the same guitar, stating he promised to teach her how to play. This scene almost in its entirety would later be used as the opening for The Last of Us Part 2.
It’s no secret the in-game outbreak is caused by the very real Cordyceps virus that normally only attacks ants and other insects making the jump to humans. However unlikely that this could happen in real life, it’s still a terrifying possibility, but what few know and what took many years to find, is there is an early hint towards this being the cause of the outbreak early on in the opening level of The Last of Us. When controlling Sarah as she searches for Joel, players explore Joel’s room before an explosion sends Sarah downstairs in a panic, still searching for her father. After descending the stairs, if the player quits out of the game and reloads the last autosave and then re-enters Joel’s room, the gruesome sight of the Cordycep fungus controlling an ant from the BBC documentary that inspired the outbreak will be playing on the TV.
The original Last of Us game went through many variations based on Neil Drukmann’s original pitch conceptualized as a grad student before joining Naughty Dog years later. One of the original concepts floated around was still born of the Cordyceps virus but the outbreak would only affect women of the world, leaving Ellie as the only female in the world immune to the virus. While narratively rich with potential similar to Y: The Last Man, many on the development team rightfully pointed out the misogynistic nature of the player battling only female infected. Neil and the rest of the team changed course and eventually the full story of Joel and Ellie’s journey across America to find the Fireflies was conceptualized and became the story gamers know and love today.
Along with changes to the overall narrative of the game, changes were made to key characters as well as the story found its footing. One major change was the game’s overall antagonist. While in the final game, there isn’t really one major villain beyond the world itself, in the original draft, Joel and Ellie would be pursued across America by Tess who was betrayed by Joel before his journey with Ellie began. All of this would culminate in Tess eventually catching up with and capturing Joel, forcing Ellie to kill her to save Joel and marking her first non-infected kill as opposed to in the final game where she kills a scavenger to save Joel’s life mid-way through. Thankfully this was changed as Tess became a standout character along with the rest of the core cast and her sacrifice is a pivotal moment for the duo.
Sometimes an idea sticks with you for years until you find the right time to share it. Such is the case with The Last of Us and Neil Druckmann’s original concept which he pitched to the godfather of modern zombies himself, George Romero. The title followed an old retired cop with a heart condition protecting a young girl during a zombie outbreak. Oftentimes the cop would suffer from heart problems and control would shift to the young girl as she fought to keep them both alive before eventually having to kill the old cop before he turned. After his initial pitch was rejected, Druckmann attempted to produce the story as a comic series under the title “The Turning” and while the pitch once again wasn’t picked up, Naughty Dog saw the potential and even the original title made its way into the game as the video game Ellie later played with Riley.
Welcome to MojoPlays and today we’re doing our best to survive the Cordyceps and bring you 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About The Last of Us Series. For this list, we’ll be looking at “behind the scenes” and “making of” facts, as well as a couple Easter Eggs we’ve found within the games themselves. What’s a little-known fact about your favorite video game series? Let us know down in the comments.
Alternate Ending
When developing any narrative, tying up the story at the end is key, and nowhere is this truer than in the interactive media where player action is at the heart of the story. Like many other video games, The Last of Us had numerous endings before the final one gamers received was settled on, but one of them was relatively close to what we ended up playing. In an alternate ending, during Joel’s confrontation in the operating room in his attempt to rescue Ellie, he takes one of the doctors hostage before being confronted by Marlene. In the end, Joel still executes all of the staff and Marlene, but the final confrontation with Marlene just didn’t feel as personal as what we ended up getting. And that’s not even mentioning the potential musical number director Neil Druckmann surprised the cast with to alleviate the tension of the scene.
The Infected
The Cordyceps infection is nothing short of horrifying, and the developers at Naughty Dog put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the infected you encounter were as grounded as possible within the game’s world. Besides the screams and clicking sounds of the infected that haunt gamers’ subconsciousness, the various levels of mutation are all unique and related to how long the person has been infected. From the infancy of the infection creating the runners and stalkers to those who have been infected for longer such as the clickers and bloaters, there’s no shortage of horrors to deal with in the 20 years since the outbreak began. In The Last of Us Part 2, players encountered a new deadly variation that took 3 mo-cap actors to bring to life: the Rat King. This terrifying stage of infection occurs when groups of infected cluster together and form one hideous abomination.
Prophetic Paper
At one time there was a prevailing theory that the world of The Last of Us and Naughty Dog’s other flagship franchise took place within the same universe and all of this stemmed from a newspaper sitting on the bar in the opening chapter of Uncharted 3. As development of Uncharted 3 was wrapping up, the team hid an Easter Egg in the newspaper alluding to an unknown outbreak they hoped would be found to coincide with the reveal of The Last of Us. However, The Last of Us’s reveal ended up being delayed, but the Easter Egg remained in the game. Thankfully, it wasn’t noticed until afterward, so none were the wiser. The Last of Us paid tribute back to this Easter Egg, as during their escape from Pittsburg, Joel and Ellie travel though O’Sullivans, a near exact replica of the bar in Uncharted 3 and a fitting tribute to the man himself, Victor Sullivan.
Strange Relics
Circling back to Uncharted and The Last of Us taking place in the same universe, although this was proven otherwise by Uncharted 4’s conclusion, there are a couple nods in The Last of Us Part 2 that tip the hat to not only Nathan Drake but Naughty Dog’s other long dormant property, Jak and Daxter. When exploring the outskirts of Seattle, Ellie and Dina can enter a dilapidated bank and upon searching the vault and its many lock boxes can find Nathan Drake’s ring with the familiar insignia “Sic Parvis Magna”. The second “Strange Artifact” has appeared in the Uncharted series before so it’s nice that it’s getting a shoutout in Naughty Dog’s newest blockbuster series. When playing as Abby in the latter half of the game, simply hiding inside a table in the building across from the Ruby Dragon is a Precursor Orb from the Jak and Daxter series.
Cameos
Game creators inserting themselves into their works is nothing new - looking at you, Hideo - but the developers at Naughty Dog decided to have some fun inserting themselves into the game. In the outskirts of Seattle while searching for gasoline, Ellie will find one of her collectible trading cards hidden in a filing cabinet that somehow survived when the rest of the building did not. Inside is the card for Dr. Uckmann which features both the name and likeness of series creator and director Neill Druckmann. This isn’t the only familiar face found in Part 2 either, early on in Jackson, Ellie will pass an old man strumming his guitar for the locals; this is the game’s musical composer Gustavo Santaolalla who is responsible for the series’ iconic soundtrack.
Epilogue
After the resounding success of The Last of Us, the teams behind the masterpieces put on a one night live show with the actors and creators to present live performances of some of the game’s most iconic scenes. One of these moments which was just for those in attendance and wasn't filmed was an epilogue that was originally planned for the full game before being cut. The scene featured Joel and Ellie settling into Jackson and Joel recounting the story of Tommy trying to set him up with one of the residents there. Joel then plays Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” for Ellie and finally gifts her the same guitar, stating he promised to teach her how to play. This scene almost in its entirety would later be used as the opening for The Last of Us Part 2.
Secret Broadcast
It’s no secret the in-game outbreak is caused by the very real Cordyceps virus that normally only attacks ants and other insects making the jump to humans. However unlikely that this could happen in real life, it’s still a terrifying possibility, but what few know and what took many years to find, is there is an early hint towards this being the cause of the outbreak early on in the opening level of The Last of Us. When controlling Sarah as she searches for Joel, players explore Joel’s room before an explosion sends Sarah downstairs in a panic, still searching for her father. After descending the stairs, if the player quits out of the game and reloads the last autosave and then re-enters Joel’s room, the gruesome sight of the Cordycep fungus controlling an ant from the BBC documentary that inspired the outbreak will be playing on the TV.
Mankind
The original Last of Us game went through many variations based on Neil Drukmann’s original pitch conceptualized as a grad student before joining Naughty Dog years later. One of the original concepts floated around was still born of the Cordyceps virus but the outbreak would only affect women of the world, leaving Ellie as the only female in the world immune to the virus. While narratively rich with potential similar to Y: The Last Man, many on the development team rightfully pointed out the misogynistic nature of the player battling only female infected. Neil and the rest of the team changed course and eventually the full story of Joel and Ellie’s journey across America to find the Fireflies was conceptualized and became the story gamers know and love today.
Tess The Antagonist
Along with changes to the overall narrative of the game, changes were made to key characters as well as the story found its footing. One major change was the game’s overall antagonist. While in the final game, there isn’t really one major villain beyond the world itself, in the original draft, Joel and Ellie would be pursued across America by Tess who was betrayed by Joel before his journey with Ellie began. All of this would culminate in Tess eventually catching up with and capturing Joel, forcing Ellie to kill her to save Joel and marking her first non-infected kill as opposed to in the final game where she kills a scavenger to save Joel’s life mid-way through. Thankfully this was changed as Tess became a standout character along with the rest of the core cast and her sacrifice is a pivotal moment for the duo.
The Turning
Sometimes an idea sticks with you for years until you find the right time to share it. Such is the case with The Last of Us and Neil Druckmann’s original concept which he pitched to the godfather of modern zombies himself, George Romero. The title followed an old retired cop with a heart condition protecting a young girl during a zombie outbreak. Oftentimes the cop would suffer from heart problems and control would shift to the young girl as she fought to keep them both alive before eventually having to kill the old cop before he turned. After his initial pitch was rejected, Druckmann attempted to produce the story as a comic series under the title “The Turning” and while the pitch once again wasn’t picked up, Naughty Dog saw the potential and even the original title made its way into the game as the video game Ellie later played with Riley.
