The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director commentary has revealed a very different ending for the Naughty Dog sequel, and I'm so glad it didn't turn out this way.
As reported by Kotaku, in The Last of Us 2 Remastered's director commentary, the game's narrative lead Halley Gross and director Neil Druckmann gave fans an insight into developing the game's story and revealed some surprising alternate endings - which definitely don't pack the same punch that the actual ones do.
This article contains major spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2.
The director's commentary shares a lot of different routes the writers considered going down, but the major one relates to killing off two major characters. Surprisingly, Lev - one of the Seraphite siblings - was never supposed to make it past Seattle and, in one draft of the script, was going to die alongside his sister Yara.
As we know, this didn't end up happening. Instead, Lev actually becomes a key person in Abby's storyline which ends ambiguously and could go on to set up the events of a future sequel or spin-off game. On the topic of Abby, the WLF member was also set to meet her demise in one version of the game's script, according to Druckmann and Gross.
The pair reveal that one possible ending for The Last of Us 2 would've seen Ellie drowning Abby during their Santa Barbara battle. After this, Ellie would have headed back to her hometown of Jackson (with all five fingers intact) and encountered a hostile NPC that we wouldn't have met before this point.
This character wouldn't have any connection to Abby or her friends and was instead the parent of a character the player killed in a combat encounter earlier in the game - demonstrating to Ellie, and the players, that this revenge cycle was never going to end. This fight would have been where Ellie lost her two fingers and, in my opinion, would have felt like a much more lackluster ending.
I'd love to find out what happens to Abby and Ellie after the events of The Last of Us 2, but we're still waiting to find out if The Last of Us Part 3 is even on the cards.
Planning to relive this story again? Take a look at our The Last of Us 2 tips guide before jumping into the remaster.
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