The Last of Us director reveals secret deleted epilogue scene
"A goodbye to Joel and Ellie."
Last night's live theatrical performance of The Last of Us included a special gift for fans in attendance - a previously-unseen epilogue scene written by the game's director Neil Druckmann.
The sequence was scripted but deleted from the game's final cut, those in attendance were told.
Spoilers follow.
Set some time after the game's ending (some in attendance report they heard "four years", other say this was Druckmann referring to the amount of time he spent writing the game), the scene finds Joel and Ellie now living at Tommy's dam.
Joel is now dating a woman from the camp named Esther, while Ellie is still acting a little distant. Joel reveals he has got Ellie a guitar as a present, plays her a song and promises he'll teach her how to play.
The two share a joke ("What's the bad thing about eating a clock? It's time consuming.") and then Joel leaves, as Ellie strums her new guitar.
Those in attendance concluded that it was a (slightly) happier note for the story to end on than in the finished game.
"Neil said that this will never ever be released, and asked that no one film it," one attendee described on NeoGAF. "It was pretty cool."
"From the context of the dialogue as well as the song, it sounded to me that Joel initially began writing the song for Sarah, but now it is for Ellie. If I remember correctly Joel says something along the lines of "I was writing this before.... Nevermind that."
"Neil also said before the scene [that it was] is a goodbye to Joel and Ellie," another attendee confirmed.
You can watch the whole of The Last of Us: One Night Live (minus that scene) below. The event, held to celebrate the launch of the game's new PS4 remaster, saw the game's original actors return to their roles to perform key sections of the script. It's definitely worth a watch:
