The Last of Us 2 fan concept art depicts the characters 30 years later

A The Last of Us 2 fan has created a series of concept art pieces that depict the characters 30 years after the events of the sequel. 

Artist Edit Ballai Maximus posted their concept art to ArtStation, which boasts some incredibly convincing designs. According to the post shared by the artist: “This project that I have been working on in the past 4 months, has started with an AI app about aging characters and changing face features, mixing and morphing characters to get new ones.” 

Their concept sees Ellie, Dina, Tommy, baby J.J, Abby, and Lev all aging 30 years, bringing the main cast to around 50 years old, J.J to his thirties, and Tommy to 73. Each character has kept their recognizable features with Lev’s Seraphite markings still on show and Tommy still lacking one eye after his Abby encounter in Seattle. Ellie has also stayed true to herself maintaining the same hairstyle all this time and although we can’t see Abby’s plait in the design, we’re certain she probably still has that too. 

Along with the aged characters, Edit Ballai Maximus also constructed an original storyline that follows on 30 years after the events of The Last of Us 2 and sees Ellie, Dina, and the rest of their family traveling to Paris to find Ellie’s birth parents in the hopes of finding a cure through her father. 

The designs posted don’t just show how the characters have aged, they also theorize what Ellie’s parents - called Frank and Anna in this version - and adult J.J may look like. Thanks to hypothetical genetics, J.J strongly resembles both Dina and Jesse while Ellie’s theorised parents Frank and Anna have both taken some of Ellie’s recognizable features. With Frank’s facial features especially similar to Ellie’s - we’re struggling to imagine these characters any other way. 

The project also contains some concept environmental art which is located in several European cities. From Paris, Venice, Pripyat, and Moscow, every location looks as if they’ve received a post-apocalyptic Naughty Dog makeover. 

While this concept certainly has us intrigued, it’s not the first time talk of a potential The Last of Us 3 has surfaced. Last month, series director Neil Druckmann mentioned on a podcast that the plot outline for a theoretical sequel has already been written. While Naughty Dog’s next game could be a long way off, there’s plenty of time to enjoy theorizing what a return to The Last of Us’s world would look like.  

Discover all the hidden things Naughty Dog buried in the game with our The Last of Us 2 Easter eggs list.