‘The Last of Us’ Creator Sheds Light on the Question, ‘Who Is Ellie’s Dad?’

The final episode of the Last of Us season 1 was truly a wild ride. In one episode, many questions were answered while new ones poked their heads out. Among them, the question that made fans curious the most is, ‘Who is Ellie’s Actual Dad?’. In a recent interview, Neil Druckmann shed some light on the dilemma. 

The last episode came in strong and broke all the previous records, garnering over 8 million viewers during the premiere. Episode 9 officially became the most-watched episode premiere of the series. It pondered upon the origins of Ellie and showed how she was born. While it featured the original Ellie actress Ashley Johnson as her mother Anna, her father was nowhere to be seen. 

Neil Druckmann answers ‘Who Is Ellie’s Dad?’ in the Last of Us

The Last of Us episode 9 starts with a pregnant woman running from something in the woods. She manages to find a safe house and locks herself in one of the rooms and soon discovers that her water broke. In the dark isolated environment, she proceeds to give birth to her child but misfortune befalls when her pursuer, an infected, broke into the room. 

The lady kills the infected with her knife and gives birth to her daughter at the same time, only to notice she has been bitten in the process. Before losing her sanity, she names her daughter Ellie. Her friend Marlene and other FireFlies soon discover her and take Ellie, while giving the lady, whose name is Anna, a swift and painless death. 

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During this whole exchange, many questioned where was Anna’s husband or Ellie’s father? Why didn’t he try to save his family? In a recent interview with Variety, the creator of the series, Neil Druckmann was also asked this question.

“There was some stuff written for the mom and dad when we were talking to this other game studio to potentially do a whole Anna game, the climax of which was this scene,” Neil said. According to the creator, there were plans for making a potential prequel game for the Last of Us that shared the story of Ellie’s Mom and Dad. 

“So I’m reluctant to say anything about it, because as I’ve now found out several times, stories that I think are failures and will never see the light of day, sometimes see the light of day.” As hinted by Druckmann, there are still chances for the story to be adapted into some kind of form, which is why he refused to share much of the details. 

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