Naughty Dog and Sony officially unveiled "The Last of Us 2" with a four-minute trailer during this year's Playstation Experience. The short preview clip confirmed it would see the return of both Ellie and Joel as the main protagonists.
The trailer primarily focuses on Ellie playing guitar and singing a rendition of "Through the Valley," originally by Shawn James and the Shapeshifters. Her hands are wounded and blood trickles down her face. Her body also appears to have new tattoo marks as a means to hide her bite marks from the past.
Joel is then shown walking through a house where he finds several people killed. He walks into the last room in the corridor and finds Ellie, confirming they are still together at this point in the story. He then asks what she is doing to which she replies she will find every one of her enemies and kill them all.
Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann explained during the presentation that the game would take place approximately five years after the first game, Gamespot reported. He also addressed fan concerns that the sequel might diminish the impact of the first game's ending.
In the ending of the first game, Joel discovered that the Fireflies could only develop a cure by killing Ellie and dissecting her brain. He killed many of the Fireflies and rescued Ellie, allowing them to run off to safety. When she asked what happened he didn't tell her the whole truth.
"'The Last of Us' is about these two characters specifically. So yes, 'Part II' is saying this is a complimentary story to the first game but the two together are going to tell this larger tale. All I ask is that fans of the first one put faith in us and trust us. We're going to do right by you," Druckmann stated.
Druckmann also explained that Ellie would now be the playable character instead of Joel. The report points out how this further emphasizes the theme of hate.
No official release date has yet been announced. According to a report from Polygon, the developers stated the game was still in early development. Popular rumors suggest it will not launch until 2018 or 2021 but Naughty Dog has yet to address these speculations.