10 "Unseen Stories" That Could Be Explored In HBO's The Last Of Us

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

Co-creator Craig Mazin has teased that HBO’s The Last of Us TV series will explore “unseen stories” from The Last of Us Part II, which could mean the show is extrapolating a handful of background storylines from the game. Mazin and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann have recently divulged their approach to The Last of Us season 2 and beyond (via Deadline). Their TV adaptation of The Last of Us Part II will take up at least two seasons and possibly extend into a third. There’s a lot of story ground to cover and they don’t want to rush it.

While Mazin has confirmed that the TV series won’t take its storytelling past that of the source material, he has teased that the show will cover “unseen stories that were told within the context of that game’s material.” The Last of Us season 2 will go beyond Ellie’s vengeful crusade in Seattle to dig into story threads that were only hinted at or alluded to in the game. This could mean showing plot points that happened off-screen, exploring the origins of the W.L.F.’s war with the Seraphites, or turning some of Ellie’s journal entries into their own episodes.

10 The Rise Of The WLF

The origins of the Washington Liberation Front are alluded to when Ellie and Dina are exploring downtown Seattle and discover the gruesome remains and documented evidence of Isaac’s ruthless uprising against FEDRA. While it was interesting to read about that history in the game, it would be even more exciting to see it in the TV show. The game didn’t have the cross-cutting, perspective-switching luxuries that the TV series will have.

Just as The Last of Us season 1 filled in the details of the merciless militia group hunting down Sam and Henry, season 2 can explain how the W.L.F. managed to overthrow the government bureaucrats and take over Seattle. The story of a group of revolutionaries toppling a fascistic regime, only to then become fascistic oppressors themselves, is like a Greek tragedy. Plus, it would give the TV producers an excuse for more Jeffrey Wright, which is never a bad thing.

9 Lev & Yara's Lives Before Going On The Run

In The Last of Us Part II, players are introduced to Lev and Yara when the latter is set to be executed alongside Abby and the former arrives to save her (and reluctantly saves Abby, too). This is a great introduction to the characters as it shows a Wolf and a pair of Seraphites being forced to work together against a common enemy. It’s one of the most intense sequences in the whole game, so it should remain intact in the TV adaptation.

But either before or after the execution scene, The Last of Us TV show should go back and show Lev and Yara’s lives before going on the run. They talk a lot about their former life on the Seraphites’ island, but the TV series has the “show, don’t tell” liberty that the game doesn’t always have. These flashbacks can round out Lev and Yara’s relationship with their mom to make her death even more tragic.

8 Owen & Danny's Deadly Disagreement

When Abby finally gets to the aquarium, she finds Owen sitting in his prized sailboat, drinking and contemplating, and asks him what happened with Danny. Owen went A.W.O.L. after Danny was found bleeding out, and both Danny and Isaac contend that Owen shot Danny to protect a Seraphite. After finding Owen in the sailboat, Abby gets his version of the story.

Owen was faced with the task of killing an unarmed elderly Seraphite who wasn’t even reaching for his weapon. Tired of fighting over land he no longer cares about, Owen refused to kill the defenseless old man, so Danny pointed his gun at Owen. In the ensuing fight, Danny got shot and Owen fled the scene. Patrick Fugit’s telling of this story is really powerful in the game, but it might be even more powerful to actually show what happened and look into the elderly Seraphite’s eyes.

7 The Origins Of The Seraphite Prophet

As Ellie and Dina make their way through the Seattle Q.Z., they see a lot of murals bearing the image of a woman in religious garb accompanied by the phrases, “Feel her love,” and “May she guide you.” As the game goes on, it becomes apparent that this woman is the prophet who created the Seraphite religion. According to Lev, the prophet initially preached love and unity, but her teachings got twisted and misinterpreted until people started killing in her name.

Abby and Lev present two very different portraits of the Seraphite prophet. Since she never appears on-screen, it’s unclear which one of them is closer to the truth. It could be interesting for The Last of Us TV show to take an episode, or even just a cold open, to explore the prophet’s origin story.

6 The Saga Of Boris

When Ellie embarks on a solo journey through the suburbs of Seattle, she cuts through a neighborhood called Hillcrest and finds a series of letters painting a complicated portrait of a man named Boris Legasov. Boris was a skilled archer before the outbreak, and after the outbreak, he became the leader of his community (and earned a reputation as a master clicker killer). After his daughter Sofia was killed by the W.L.F., Boris wanted to wage war against the Wolves.

His neighbors all wanted to avenge Sofia just as much as he did, but they thought such an endeavor would be futile given the Wolves’ numbers. An enraged Boris trapped his neighbors in a garage full of spores, then ended up getting infected when his best friend Uli regained consciousness and bit him. Not only is Boris’ story complex and tragic enough for a whole episode; his drive for revenge after the murder of a loved one poignantly mirrors Ellie’s story.

5 Jesse's Solo Journey To Seattle

While Ellie is desperately trying to avoid the full force of the W.L.F. on her way through Hillcrest, she bumps into Jesse, who came all the way from Jackson to help her and Dina track down Abby. It’s a great surprise when Ellie is racing past the W.L.F.’s troops, narrowly avoiding their gunfire, then gets grabbed and pulled into a secluded building. Initially, she thinks she’s been captured, but then she recognizes her friend.

Jesse mentions that he left Jackson the day after Ellie and Dina and he’s been doing 18-hour stretches to catch up with them. It would be interesting to see Jesse’s solo journey to Seattle in a montage in The Last of Us season 2. Jesse is one of The Last of Us saga’s most likable characters, so it would be great to see more of his story in the TV show.

4 Ellie, Dina & Tommy Return To Jackson

After Abby reluctantly spares Ellie, Dina, and Tommy’s lives at the theater, there’s a time jump to several months later when Ellie and Dina have moved into a farmhouse on the outskirts of Jackson, where they’re raising their son J.J. Before Abby left them at the theater, Jesse had been suddenly killed and the survivors had all suffered horrific wounds. Ellie had her arm broken, Dina was impaled with an arrow and beaten unconscious, and Tommy was shot in the side of the head.

The game remains ambiguous as to how they managed to recover from these wounds and travel all the way back to Jackson. Even after their physical wounds started to heal, the emotional wounds of failing their mission and losing Jesse would still be fresh. It would be devastating, but dramatically fascinating to experience this somber trip home.

3 The Breakout Of The Wolves' War With The Seraphites

After exploring the origins of the W.L.F. and the origins of the Seraphites, The Last of Us season 2 can explore the origins of the two organizations’ war with each other. The war has been going on for long enough that impressionable young people like Abby, Lev, and Yara have been indoctrinated to despise the opposite group. The conflict is so intense that an attempted truce promptly broke down and the fighting resumed.

The civil war provides an exciting backdrop for Ellie’s search for Abby, with danger lurking around every corner. But the war itself is an interesting story in its own right. It’s a poignant allegory for any civil war and humanity’s penchant for killing each other and otherizing anyone with opposing viewpoints. There’s a lot of rich history to mine from the Wolves’ war with the Seraphites.

2 Ellie's Relationship With Cat

When Ellie and Dina go out on patrol and Ellie asks about Dina’s recently terminated relationship with Jesse, Dina mentions that Ellie never really talked to her about Cat. In the game’s flashbacks, Cat’s role is expanded as stories about her start to appear in Ellie’s journal. Cat is Ellie’s ex-girlfriend who gave her the tattoo that covers the chemical burn that covers her bite mark.

Ellie’s journal entries describe her crush on Cat, their early flirtation, and eventually their first kiss. Ellie writes that when Cat kissed her, she became paranoid that she’d pass on her Cordyceps infection. She stayed up all night, watching Cat sleep, looking for any signs of infection. This key part of Ellie’s backstory – and reckoning with her immunity – would make a great flashback or standalone installment of the TV show.

1 Tommy's Rampage Through Seattle

The most important off-screen story thread from The Last of Us Part II – and the one that would be easiest to integrate into the TV adaptation – is Tommy’s roaring rampage of revenge through Seattle. Ellie and Dina leave for Seattle a few hours after Tommy and when they arrive in the city, they find plenty of evidence that he’s already there. They find his campsite downtown, they find a pile of bodies he left in his wake, and they find the bloody fruits of his signature interrogation technique.

Rather than alluding to what Tommy’s been getting up to in Seattle, The Last of Us season 2 can just show it. The TV show might use its cross-cutting abilities to show Ellie and Abby’s perspectives of the three days in Seattle simultaneously. They might as well throw Tommy’s perspective in there, too.