9 Ways The Last Of Us 2 Was Almost Completely Different

3. Abby Murdered Joel Because Of His Hunter Days

While The Last of Us 2 was always going to feature Joel's death by the hands of Abby, the latter's reasoning was never set in stone. Though it's difficult to imagine a justification more thematically rich than Abby being the daughter of the Firefly surgeon Joel kills to save Ellie, the writers did have a cool idea that they initially ran with.

For a long time, Abby's actions weren't going to be tied to the Fireflies at all, and instead a flashback would introduce players to the character's family and caravan community. During these sections, it would be revealed that Tommy and Joel - in their peak Hunter days - killed Abby's family and destroyed her community, leaving her spending the rest of her life seeking revenge.

While the final version has a cleaner connection to the first title, it would have been fascinating to see how this altered story played out. The original game referenced the horrible things Tommy and Joel did to survive, and the sheer amount of people Joel crossed is something discussed often in the sequel.

This would have made it clear that, Fireflies or otherwise, there were plenty of people with justification to seek revenge on Joel, and he would always have to face the consequences of his past sins.

Ultimately the end result more neatly ties in with Ellie's story, but this is still a fascinating idea.