On the occasion of the release of the last episode of The Last of Us series, Neil Druckmann revealed an unexpected anecdote to say the least: a prequel developed by another studio almost saw the light of day!
Launched mid-January on HBO Max in the United States and Prime Video in France, The TV adaptation of The Last of Us concluded yesterday in front of more than 8.2 million viewers. Since then, the license has again found itself in the news, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin mentioning in particular their future projects for the series. But this time, the co-president of Naughty Dog also gave himself a lot of secrets about the future and past plans of the study… which let us know of the existence of an abandoned prequel for the franchise.
The Last of Us almost got a prequel
It was at the microphone of the Kinda Funny show hosted by Greg Miller that the co-creator of the series revealed this surprising anecdote. If you watched the last episode of the season, then It has probably not escaped you that a flashback allows us to meet Anna, Ellie’s mother., while the latter has never been present in the games. However, this addition, which delights fans all the more since the character is played by Ashley Johnson, aka Ellie in the games, does not come out of nowhere. And for good reason, It is taken from a prequel that almost saw the light of day. at a time!
“There was a more complete version of this story that went back further in time and was going to be turned into a video game” said Druckman. “Greg Miller introduced me to this study, we talked to them for a while about doing it, but it didn’t really work out.” then adds, revealing in passing that the game in question was not developed by Naughty Dog. Unfortunately, the co-creator of The Last of Us does not say more about the reasons for this abandonment, or even if there is still a chance that this project could still see the light of day later.
A project that could be reborn from its ashes?
Keep in mind, this wouldn’t have been the first time the California studio had done this for one of its franchises. In effect, Uncharted received the same treatment with Uncharted: Golden Abyss in 2012, which was developed by Bend Studio (Days Gone). exclusively for PS Vita. But who knows, maybe between the success of The Last of Us Part II, the PS5 remake, and the TV adaptation, Naughty Dog will eventually want to continue to exploit its license by not only bringing to life a potential The Last of Us Part III, but also to parallel projects? The future will tell.