2013’s post-apocalyptic road trip The Last Of Us often gets held up as a milestone in video game storytelling, with millions of fans investing themselves in the story of hard-scrabble survivor Joel and his fierce young charge Ellie. Now, after years of rumors, developer Naughty Dog has confirmed that it’ll be continuing the story past the game’s emotional painful cliffhanger, releasing a trailer for The Last Of Us Part II at today’s Sony PlayStation Experience.
Fitting to the themes of the first game, the teaser is moody, a little sweet, and absolutely drenched in blood. Sitting in a house full of corpses, a wounded, bloody, and visibly older Ellie plays the guitar, before Joel appears to ask her about her plans. “I’m gonna find, and I’m gonna kill, every last one of them,” she says. Cue logo.
Director Neil Druckmann offered up some thoughts on the sequel on the PlayStation blog today, too, saying, “We knew that it needed to be a story worth telling and, perhaps more importantly, a story worthy of Joel and Ellie. After spending years on different ideas (and almost giving up), we finally uncovered a story that felt special—a story that evolved into an epic journey.” Druckmann also noted that he’ll be hosting a livestreamed panel to talk about the game—along with returning stars Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker—at 2 p.m. Pacific today.