10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Naughty Dog
6. The Last Of Us Was Almost Jak 4
Coming off the back of the Jak & Daxter trilogy, Naughty Dog were aiming to do something far more mature than another trilogy of cutesy platformers. As such, they reigned in the animal-aping character designs in favour of a dude in jeans; Nathan Drake.
Once that trilogy was done, they were faced with a choice - revive an old franchise in a new direction or do something original again. Sprucing up both Jak and Daxter into a yellow-haired humanoid with a pet rat was on the table for quite some time, until they decided they were going so far away from what Jak n' Dax 'was', that it just didn't make sense.
Cue scrapping that idea and doubling down on a far more serious tone in every respect - birthing The Last of Us as their more accomplished and darkest work to date.