Joel and Ellie are back.
Over three years and one re-release later, Naughty Dog has officially announced a sequel to the critically-acclaimed and widely-loved The Last of Us. After being quite non-committal over the past several years when asked about a sequel, Creative Director Neil Druckman announced The Last of Us Part II in a blog post on Playstation.com, and Sony quietly dropped a trailer at the end of the keynote at PlayStation Experience 2016. It’s beautiful and solemn, in a stark contrast to the more graphic TLOU E3 announcement trailer from four years ago. Check it out below.
While not much is known yet (and likely won’t be for quite some time, knowing Naughty Dog) what we do know so far is that it takes place several years after the events of the first game, judging by the encroachment of nature and a much more mature Ellie. Also confirmed was the return of both Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker reprising their roles as Ellie and Joel.
Where we slide from fact into conjecture, though, is the implied story behind Ellie’s violent spree and possible story motivations. For those that don’t remember, the symbol on the stop sign at the beginning of the trailer is that of the Fireflies; a militant group who SPOILERS attempts to harvest a comatose Ellie for her immunity to the cordyceps virus only to be stopped by Joel who later lies to her about the encounter END SPOILERS. One would think that Ellie’s final line of “I’m gonna kill… every… last one of them” implies that she has discovered the truth and aims to seek revenge against the group. Or maybe they just touched her guitar without asking?
If you’re looking to see more on TLOUP2, make sure you track down the 4:00 PM CST panel from the Playstation Experience live stream. A partial schedule is listed below — including panels on the new Uncharted releases!
Matt Kondracki is the Senior Editor, News for AYBOnline.com and needs more Joel and Ellie in his life.
