The Last Of Us Franchise Scrapped A Game That Would Have Focused On A Beloved Supporting Character

"The Last of Us" is not only a fantastic adaptation of a video game, but it's also a terrific TV show in its own right. It puts a unique spin on the zombie genre by making its world-ending virus a fungal infection rather than reanimated corpses. This, in turn, makes its Infected all the more terrifying since they're part of a single fungal life cycle.

Indeed, even though there are many similarities between the tones and worlds of "The Last of Us" and, say, "The Walking Dead" or "28 Days Later," the former stands out because of the Cordyceps fungal apocalypse. It informs the world of the show, as the Infected do actually die on their own after a long enough time. Still, as any zombie fan knows, what makes the genre interesting are the living people that fight the undead — and each other.

While the "Last of Us" video games are full of interesting characters, they don't spend a whole lot of time on their supporting players. It's only natural, too, what with the games being all about moving onto the next level as quickly as possible. The TV adaptation, on the other hand, doesn't have that limitation and can spend more time exploring side stories. That's exactly what it did in season 1's much celebrated Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) episode (a tremendous hour of TV that season 2 won't try to replicate).

There are other fan-favorite supporting characters who could do with more screen time on the series as well, not least of all Tommy (Gabriel Luna). As it turns out, though, we almost got a whole lot more time with Tommy in the original games, as he nearly received his own spin-off.

In the "Last of Us" TV series, Tommy Miller is the brother of Pedro Pascal's Joel. Having been traumatized by his time with the militia group The Fireflies, Tommy eventually creates the commune of Jackson with his partner Maria (Rutina Wesley). Jackson serves as a safe haven, providing a glimmer of hope in a rather nihilistic and grim show. In "The Last of Us Part II," as fans of the game know, Tommy's arc takes a darker turn towards anger and despair (something Luna has admitted was a challenge going into "The Last of Us" season 2).

In "Grounded II," a documentary about the making of "The Last of Us Part II" (which you can watch here), game director Neil Druckmann talks about some of the rumors surrounding the larger franchise and its future. Specifically, he addressed a previous interview he did where he mentioned "we have written a story that takes place after 'Last of Us 2' [and] stars Tommy." At the time, Druckmann said he hoped he'd get to make that game. In the documentary, however, he clarifies that he'd been talking about a smaller spin-off and not "The Last of Us Part III." In his own words:

"The headlines across the industry were like, 'Naughty Dog has outlined 'The Last of Us Part III,” and that's actually wrong. It was always a small story, it was never a full title. At the time, we had higher priorities at Naughty Dog to fix our pipeline, to fix work-life balance issues. Just based on where we were, I didn't want to prioritize the story, so that story was shelved. And I still believe one day, it'll see the light of day. I don't know if it'll be a game or a show, TBD."

So, if we're not getting the Tommy spin-off game anytime soon, what does the future hold for the "Last of Us" property? Well, when it comes to the video games, Druckmann had disappointing news to share during an interview with Variety:

"I guess the only thing I would say is don't bet on there being more of 'Last of Us.' This could be it."

After the way "The Last of Us Part II" ended, this shouldn't come as a big surprise. That game doesn't exactly scream sequel, and to simply look beyond the main characters would diminish the story of Joel, Ellie, and Abby. Still, Druckmann doesn't address the possibility of side stories (like a game focused on Tommy), which would be a good way of expanding the world without clashing with the main story.

As for the HBO adaptation, don't count on the series running for too long. It's been known for a while that "The Last of Us" won't do what "Game of Thrones" did and venture beyond the events of its source material; "Our focus is the two games," as Druckmann previously put it. Still, while that doesn't exclude original elements like the season 1 prologue or the Bill and Frank episode, we shouldn't expect the show to speculate on what happens beyond the two games so far.

"The Last of Us" season 2 premieres April 13, 2025, on HBO and Max.