Naughty Dog Revealing The Last of Us’ Original Ending at PAX

Why so angry, Tess?

The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann has revealed even more about the original ending of the game.
In the latest issue of GameInformer (via VideoGamer), Druckmann spoke in greater detail about the concept art below (see the original story below), featuring Tess holding a knife to Joel's throat. "Originally in the story Tess took more of a villain role," said Druckmann. "Tess was betrayed by Joel and took on a mission to pursue him across the country. That storyline never worked out. The storyline shifted and Tess took on this role where she became more of a believer and she helped motivate Joel."
In the scene portrayed by the concept art, Ellie would have been called into action and forced to kill Tess – the first time she would have killed a non-infected human in the game.
"Ellie's arc originally was that she didn't kill any non-infected people until the end, when she was going to kill Tess when Tess was torturing Joel," Druckmann goes on to say. "What we realised is that we had to get Ellie engaged more in the combat because when she was disengaged from the action for that long you didn't care so much. So that changed pretty early on. We decided it wasn't going to be about the first time she killed someone, it was more about this coming of age story of the impact that the horrors of violence has on her over the course of the game."
Druckmann also gave some insight in how the game originally concluded: "The original ending when we pitched the game was a much more hopeful ending, where Joel and Ellie make it to San Francisco and that is a town run by people who are trying to restore society. Joel has killed all these doctors and lied to Ellie, and Ellie just fully buys into the lie. So, you're left with the idea that they are going to live the rest of their lives in this town.
"The camera pulls back and maybe everything is going to be alright for these two. I was working on writing, and it didn't feel honest anymore. After everything they've done and everything they've been through, that was letting them off a little too easy - especially for Joel."
Naughty Dog has released a teaser image hinting at the original ending of The Last of Us.
In a post on Twitter, creative director Neil Druckmann teased that fans will be able to “see how it originally ended” at the studio’s PAX panel later this month, as he and game director Bruce Straley will “re-pitch The Last of Us.”
Druckmann included the following concept art, which shows an angry Tess holding a knife to Joel’s throat:

According to the panel’s description on PAX’s official site, Druckmann and Straley will “pull back the curtain to show you their original pitch for The Last of Us," which will give "everyone at this panel a look at how close or far the final game ended up from the original pitch.”
Druckmann and Straley’s panel will take place from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Pacific on Friday, August 30th. Based on the teaser, how do you think The Last of Us originally ended? Let us know in the comments (and beware of spoilers if you haven't finished the game yet).
For more on The Last of Us, be sure to read our review and find out everything we know in our The Last of Us wiki guide.