In the wake of The Last of Us finale, more information continues to emerge, and it’s not welcome news to fans. This time, it manages to upset a number of different camps.
It’s been revealed that The Last of Us shot a game-accurate version of (spoilers) the Mel, Owen and Ellie encounter, as some had theorized with previous set shots of the cast looking battered. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin confirmed a sequence had been shot but ultimately was not used because, well, here’s his explanation via THR:
"For this, Ellie is not really capable of killing Owen — you look at Bella and you look at Spencer Lord, he’s 6’4″ and just incredibly imposing. A physical struggle wasn’t going to go well, and she’s not there to kill them. She just wants to kill Abby. I remember saying to Neil that as f***ed up as that moment was in the game, I think it can be more fucked up and not to be a tormentor.”
It’s a frustrating decision for several different groups who often don’t align on much regarding the show:
- Game Accuracy Fans – The entire scene was altered to depict Ellie accidentally shooting and killing both Owen and Mel with one shot, rather than there being any sort of fight.
- Bella Fans – They’re upset that Bella is being sidelined as a capable fighter because of their height and size.
- Bella-Shouldn’t-Have-Been-Cast Fans – They’re annoyed because they think that this whole thing could have been avoided had they cast a different actress.
It’s also inconsistent with the Ellie the show built, namely how there’s a specific sequence where Ellie takes down a large man, seemingly establishing that she could have done this. But also, there’s nothing that says Ellie needs to fist-fight here; she has a gun and she usually has a knife on her. But turning this into an accidental killing with no fight at all also takes away from who her character is supposed to be.
This comes in the wake of podcast comments from Mazin that Abby is more “capable” than Ellie, something that is again not demonstrated by the games. All of this adds up to the fact that an entirely new Ellie has been written for season 2, and seemingly for the rest of the show going forward, which is frustrating to almost anyone with a dog in this fight.
