The Last of Us Showrunner confirms the recent episode will change the way the series ends

The last episode of The last of us I have just dropped a great emotional bomb and according to the co-creator Neil DruckmannIt is a narrative decision that will move the course of the show ending.

Entitled “The Price”, the episode of Season 2 brought a key flashback scene from The last part of us IIThe excruciating reconciliation of Joel and Ellie on the portico, much earlier than expected.

In the game, that moment does not land until the final act. Here, it is positioned just before Ellie faces Nora and just before the ending. It is a creative choice that refers to everything.

Speaking with the variety, Druckmann explained the reasoning behind the move:

“When we were playing the game, I knew that the scene had to exist. I didn’t know where it went. This was true for all flashbacks. Even late in the production of the game, we were moving those flashbacks.

“It seemed too long, especially because this season is so concentrated on Ellie’s journey and this emotional truth about what he knew? What didn’t he know?”

The delay in the seasons was also the key factor. Druckmann explained:

“To wait for more years until season 3 will come out – or maybe also season 4, it depends on where all events and how many seasons we have – I was easily convinced by Craig that it would have been too long.”

So this means that the show is now tracing a different course from the game ending? Druckmann confirmed.

“Right.”

In a separate interview, Druckmann has further clarified because they chose to limit all Joel’s flashbacks to a single episode.

“You may not miss Joel enough. We felt like the show, we would have a much greater impact if we all put them together and could see them side by side and feel the deterioration of that relationship.

“I also had problems that the episodes would have turned into a little model. It would be like, ‘Okay, what is Joel’s flashback this week?’

It is a strategic and emotional recalibration and is organizing a different type of trip to Ellie. In the show, he is not accumulating a counting of the killings in the same way he does in the game. It is intentional.

“In the game, it was important for me for Ellie to enter this truly obscure head space and not being able to get out of it for a while, because … you have to commit much more violence than you do in the show.

“While in the game, when he arrived in Nora, he would have already killed a lot of people, including some of the people responsible for Joel’s death, really, on the show, the first is Nora.

“So it is on this journey and I don’t know if it really understands what this journey means, until this point now, when it comes to Nora and this is a time when she is trying to be like Joel.”

While fans can think they know where everything goes, the showrunners are not clearly afraid of remixing the roadmap of how they will arrive at the end.