Straley and Druckmann also touched on a very different version of The Last of Us that saw Joel's partner Tess play the role of antagonist. In earlier versions of the story, Tess' brother joins Joel, Tess and Ellie on the initial leg of their journey. Tess' brother soon dies in a firefight with the military that Joel instigates, and Tess blames Joel for his death. When Joel and Tess go their separate ways, the latter begins to resent Joel and with the help of a gang of survivors, attempts to hunt Joel down.
Near the end of the game, Naughty Dog planned to have Tess' gang catch up with Joel and chase them down into a ranch house. With Joel's help, Ellie would escape. Tess would then torture Joel for information about Ellie's whereabouts with the intent of finding her and killing the girl — "She knows you're the only thing I care about," Joel would have told Ellie.
The torture scene would have ended with Tess pointing her gun at Joel's head, then a gunshot and a smash to black.
During her escape, Ellie would have doubled back, seen the torture taking place and shot Tess. It's her gunshot players would have heard.
Among the other scrapped ideas for The Last of Us was another character along for the ride: Ellie's dog. Naughty Dog showed concept art of the scrappy pup in Ellie's arms, but no in-game footage of her faithful companion.
"We wanted to make a Naughty Dog game with an actual dog," Druckmann said.
