The Last of Us 2's director says he was "uncomfortable" writing its romantic elements, but his co-writer pushed for them
Feb. 5, 2024“I think I’ve just got Ellie’s girlfriend pregnant”
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The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann admits he was “more uncomfortable” writing the romantic elements of the sequel. Thankfully, co-writer Halley Gross was there to advocate for them in a big way and bring them to life.
As part of a two-hour documentary about the making ofThe Last of Us 2, Druckmann speaks about bringing in another writer to shake things up as the story was becoming “epic and ambitious” and he was “stuck” on a few parts. Druckmann goes on to share that Gross challenged what the story could be right off the bat and wanted to add more “romantic intimacy between the characters.”
“Those are areas I’ve been more uncomfortable writing,” Druckmann says. “After the first day, she was telling me that she went home and told her husband that, ‘I think I’ve just got Ellie’s girlfriend pregnant.’ Because that was her big idea on the first day, and that had this trickle-on effect and actually added a lot to the story.”
The documentary has plenty of other fun tidbits, too.The Last of Us 2 was originally going to be a Bloodborne-inspired open-world game, asNaughty Dogwanted it to be “as different as humanly possible from the first game,” though the idea didn’t quite stick.
Druckmann also continues to leave the dooropen for The Last of Us Part 3, saying, “It does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds, games-wise, for The Last of Us, though progress onThe Last of Us Season 2is seemingly coming on nicely if you’re a fan of the TV show.
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Iain joins the GamesRadar team as Deputy News Editor following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When not helping Ali run the news team, he can be found digging into communities for stories – the sillier the better. When he isn’t pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new hat, you’ll find him amassing an army of Pokemon plushies.
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