Yesterday, Sony live-streamed its latest State of Play presentation that revealed important updates for upcoming games to the PlayStation 4. However, it is no doubt that the biggest news announced during the live stream is the release date of Naughty Dog's highly-anticipated game, The Last of Us 2. The sequel is set to release on February 21, 2020, and yesterday's presentation also unveiled the latest trailer for the game.
In the preview, players were shown new gameplay and story details for The Last of Us 2. However, one of the biggest shocks in the trailer is the appearance of the first game's primary protagonist Joel, who has been absent in previous trailers. While Joel's reveal is something worth celebrating for fans of the first game, the timing of his appearance and the way it was shown during the trailer seems pretty vague and opens the question whether Joel is actually alive, or is he now a figment of Ellie's imagination?
Of course, the only way to truly find out is to wait for the game's release date. The Last of Us 2 is already available for pre-order with some exciting bonuses for those purchasing the game early. However, given that The Last of Us 2 is still a few months away, we delve into three possibilities that look into Joel's surprise appearance in the trailer. Before going further, a word of warning that we will be discussing major spoilers from The Last of Us and speculate on possible scenarios of what might happen in The Last of Us 2.
Joel is alive
Yesterday's State of Play trailer for The Last of Us 2 ended with Ellie's encounter with Joel. It wasn't clear how long time has passed since the last game, but it is obvious that both Ellie and Joel have aged since the last time we saw them. One scene that proves that Joel is alive, is when he grabbed Ellie to prevent her from being seen by enemies nearby. Obviously, if Joel is just part of Ellie's imagination, logic dictates that he wouldn't be able to physically touch her. However, their reunion doesn't seem to be a happy one, which seems to suggest that Ellie and Joel's relationship has been estranged at some point. As to why? We still don't know.
Joel is dead
One of the most pressing scenarios that have since surfaced in the community ever since the release of the latest trailer is that Joel is dead, and the reunion between the two characters is just a product of Ellie's imagination. If this is true, then Joel's death would be The Last of Us 2's most shocking plot twist. Although The Last of Us had many plot holes that were never explained, we know for a fact that both Ellie and Joel were able to survive the events of the first game. There is no way to know how he could have died in the upcoming game, but a couple of scenarios comes to mind as to how Joel could have met his fate.
First, it is possible that Joel lost his life sometime during the period between The Last of Us 1 and 2. Given that they live in a post-apocalyptic world, the chances of death during a battle or lack of resources could have easily contributed to his end. The second possible scenario is that Ellie could have killed Joel after the events of the first game. Players who have played The Last of Us know how it ended. The Fireflies captured Ellie after discovering that she is immune from the Cordyceps infection and plans to experiment on her body in hopes of discovering a cure. However, Joel prevented this from happening and successfully rescued Ellie from death.
After the rescue, Ellie confronted Joel as to what happened with the Fireflies. We know that Joel lied to her saying that there are others like her and that they stopped looking for a cure, which Ellie reluctantly accepted. However, did she really believe him? The ending scene showed that Ellie was willing to sacrifice herself for the better of humanity, but Joel prevented her from doing so. Could she have killed Joel after finding out that there is a good chance that she may be able to end the outbreak? We know that this scenario is pretty dark, but even voice actor Troy Baker revealed that Joel is more of a villain than a hero. The fact remains that this scenario makes sense in the context of the game, no matter how heartbreaking it may be.
Joel is alive but dies in the middle of the game
This is an in-between scenario and is probably the likeliest possibility out of all. We may see the first part of The Last of Us 2 taking place immediately after the events of the first game, as the two venture out to look for Joel's brother Tommy. However, somewhere along the way, Joel dies, leaving Ellie to face the post-apocalyptic world on her own. If this is indeed true, then their reunion scene in the latest trailer makes sense, given that Ellie was surprised to see Joel, even asking him why he's there.
Again, everything mentioned in this article is pure speculation of what may unfold in The Last of Us 2. Luckily, there are only a few months for players to truly know what will transpire in the upcoming sequel. Apart from Joel's reveal and the announcement of the release date, Naughty Dog also talked about a few details about the upcoming game. Director Neil Druckmann revealed that The Last of Us 2 is the biggest game that was ever made during Naughty Dog's 35-year history. While the dev did not provide an average playtime, players can expect that it will be longer than its predecessor.
The Last of Us 2 is set to release on February 21, 2020, exclusively for the PlayStation 4.