The Last of Us creators reveal axed plot with this doomed character

The show's opening could have been more tragic.

By Joe Anderton

23 Jan 2023

HBO

The Last of Us TV show spoilers follow.

HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us dropped its second episode last night (January 22), giving newcomers and fans of the games alike a new look at a world ravaged by the infected.

The show has been flitting between almost perfect recreations of moments from the groundbreaking PlayStation hit, slight deviations, and completely new moments. One of those new moments from episode 2 was how Anna Torv's character Tess died.

In the game, she was killed by soldiers off-screen before the player had to face them. In the show, we saw her sacrifice herself to set fire to a building infested with clickers. You can read a lengthy explainer on what went down here.

While the show's focus on Tess as she died was more emotional than how the game handled it, there were plans to make her death hit even harder through some extra scenes that didn't make it.

Speaking on the show's official HBO Max podcast, co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin revealed that they had written a backstory for Tess, and it's extra tragic.

"We wrote it, we never shot it... It was a little bit of a backstory for Tess, and the fact that Tess had a kid," Mazin revealed. "She had a husband and she had a son, and they were infected and she had to kill them.

"She killed her husband, but she could not kill the son. She couldn't do it... She locked him in the basement, where theoretically he's still a clicker."

HBO

Druckmann added that they had planned a cold open based on Tess' backstory that was also cut.

"We had a cold open where we just, where the camera pushed on this door and you just hear this pounding coming from this basement, and then we cut out. And then later, Tess would tell the story of how she couldn't kill her son," he said.

"It just didn't fit. But it was fun to think about."

Tess' backstory would have been brought in conversation with Joel and Ellie to drive home how she still holds onto hope despite the horror she's been through, which is in stark contrast to where Joel is right now.

The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US, and on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK. You can listen to the podcast in full here.