Following the triumph of the first game, Naughty Dog released a preview of The Last of Us 2 at Playstation Experience 2016 which had fans going wild.  Watching the trailer, it seems Ellie will be portrayed as the central focal point of the game  with Joel partnering up with her once again to end the zombie-like epidemic.  Continuing the story, Part II will be much darker and delve into Ellie’s nature who is now all grown up, something that had not been present in the first game.
 Beware, spoilers ahead.  In a recent interview, developer Neil Druckmann stated that Ellie was created to be a gay character as illustrated in the Left Behind DLC.  While the story of Ellie and Riley was fleshed out, there was something else going on between the characters.  “I was writing it with the idea that Ellie is gay, and when the actresses were working, they were definitely working with the idea that they’re both attracted to each other.”
During The Last of Us: Left Behind story, the girls both come to realize that they have been infected leading them to make a life changing decision.  Riley then gave two options, one was to shoot themselves or spend their remaining time together.  Riddled by her emotions, Ellie abruptly kissed Riley causing a frenzy among the gaming community.  Afterwards, Ellie apologized for her actions which Riley accepted.  Regarding the unexpected kissing scene, Druckmann commented, “There’s that chemistry there from the get go that was important for us so that we earned that moment when they kissed each other.”  It appears to be a plausible choice from the characters’ perspectives as they have no one else to depend on but each other, feeling lost and perplexed, hauled into such a dire situation.
Though it has yet to confirmed whether players will have the chance to find out about Ellie’s past, what is certain is that the character of Ellie will not be left alone in the dark.
Naughty Dog has yet to settle on a release date for The Last of Us 2.
Published: Jan 21, 2017 12:54 pm