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This should open with tons of bad words expressing joy… in honor of Ellie, but it won’t. Instead, let’s take a moment to bow to Naughty Dog. They came out swinging today with the Uncharted: The Lost Legacy reveal. That’s how PlayStation opened the show! How do they close it? With The Last of Us Part II, of course.
Shawn Layden was sure to say the game was still in early development, so we won’t be seeing more for a while. But let’s unpack the few minutes we did see. The trailer starts in a forrest, showing nature has retake its claim of the Earth. Then we see a Firefly symbol. Eruption of screams. We’re quickly taken to a small room where a figure is seen picking up a guitar and plucking a tune. The figure is Ellie, an older Ellie to be exact, meaning Joel honored his promise of teaching her to play. She then begins singing Through the Valley. It’s a beautiful moment. Who knew Ashley Johnson (Ellie’s actor) could sing?
The shot then shifts to Old Man Joel approaching. He calls her “kiddo” for Heaven’s sake! “Are you really going to do this?” He asks, before Ellie reveals she’s has to go after “them” and kill every last one. It seems safe to assume this “them” she refers to are the Fireflies.
In the first game, the Fireflies asserted themselves as humanity’s last hope. Ellie was the answer to fixing the world’s problems, as she is immune to the cordyceps fungus. But why is she going after them after all this time? Does this mean she’s uncovered something sinister about them that the audience has yet to learn? Tell us your thoughts and theories in the comments below.
Writer/director Neil Druckmann had this to say on the PlayStation Blog about the reveal:
“I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to finally be able to say that Ellie and Joel are back for another intense, harrowing, and emotional adventure. Like many of you, we have a deep love for the world of The Last of Us and its characters, and while a sequel may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, that wasn’t the case. We knew that it needed to be a story worth telling and, perhaps more importantly, a story worthy of Joel and Ellie. After spending years on different ideas (and almost giving up), we finally uncovered a story that felt special—a story that evolved into an epic journey.”
The Last of Us Part II likely has a long development cycle ahead. More news isn’t expected for quite some time, but this is more than enough to tide us over.
Images: PlayStation
