The Last of Us Part 2's major death "was controversial internally too," says former Naughty Dog dev: "The studio was pretty split"

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The Last of Us Part 2's decision to kill off a major character had the developers at Naughty Dog split, according to a former dev.

On the off chance you know anything about The Last of Us Part 2 but have somehow avoided knowing about the game's major death, spoilers ahead.

Speaking to Kiwi Talkz, Heather Cerlan – a former Naughty Dog artist who worked on The Last of Us and Uncharted series – was asked if the studio knew that The Last of Us 2 was going to be controversial ahead of its release. She responds, "Oh yeah, most of the studio was like, 'really you're going to...'" before pausing for the sake of spoilers. But of course, we're talking about Joel getting killed off in the opening hours of the game.

Article continues below #207 - Heather Cerlan Interview On Naughty Dog, Bethesda, Last Of Us, Hawthorn, Creation Engine - YouTube Watch On

Cerlan continues, "I think the studio was pretty split on the outcome of what happens," saying "it was controversial internally too." And of course, it ended up pretty controversial outside of the studio, too, with the leaked plot details ahead of The Last of Us Part 2's release setting off an online discourse that was as obnoxious as it was for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Personally I'm in the camp of there shouldn't have been a sequel to The Last of Us in the first place, but if you have to do one, killing off Joel pretty much has to be a given, because really, what else is there to do with him after his arc in the first game? Him getting got after his actions at the end of the The Last of Us Part 1 – which was originally way more interesting without a sequel and co-creator Neil Druckmann ruining any of the interesting ambiguity it had left by saying a cure would've been made from Ellie's sacrifice – was the natural conclusion to that.

The Last of Us star Troy Baker says "we've not seen the last of Joel," teases more could come from Naughty Dog "or somebody else."

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Scott McCraeContributor

Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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