Neil Druckmann, co-creator of The Last of Us, revealed how the first game originally included Ellie's mom and why that idea didn't make it into the game.
The Last of Us is currently conquering the world with the HBO adaptation of the game breaking records left and right. While the show sticks pretty close to the game, the creators have changed the events of the original story to add exciting and surprising elements.
One of these new parts of the story will concern Ellie's mom Anna, who will appear in the show but is never seen in the games. However, that used to be different, as the Naughty Dog team originally had ideas for DLC that would have shown Anna in the game.
The Last of Us DLC With Ellie's Mom Was Originally Planned
Neil Druckmann, co-creator of The Last of Us and co-showrunner of the HBO adaptation, has revealed this detail in a new interview with Variety. In it, he answers a question about realising ideas in the show, which weren't possible in the game.
Druckmann singles out the appearance of Anna late in the show. Ellie's mom never made it into the games, but Naughty Dog were close to doing it differently at the time and almost included her via DLC.
I had written a short story after we had shipped the game already. It was supposed to be an animated short, but it fell apart and didn’t come to be. There was a moment where we almost made it as DLC, but it fell apart. In our conversations, I brought it up to Craig [Mazin, co-showrunner] and he was immediately excited by it, or as he would say “activated.”
A section about Anna would have fit perfectly with Left Behind and the flashbacks about Ellie's life before meeting Marlene and Joel. An animated short telling more of the story outside the game also sounds great, reminds us of the prequel comic "American Dreams".
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But alas, it shan't have been. Happens. We are now even more excited to see what they do with Anna in the show though, especially as she will be played by Ashley Williams, the original voice actress for Ellie in the games. Druckmann describes this as bringing Anna 'to life in the most beautiful, poetic way' and honestly... hard agree.
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