Images from an official The Last of Us animated movie have appeared online

Images of a cancelled The Last of Us animated movie have briefly appeared online before being taken down.

The Last of Us Part 2 may be months away from release, but the Oddfellows and Sony movie that was intended to "serve as a strong bridge" between Naughty Dog's 2013 Game of the Decade and its upcoming sequel were first spotted by Nerd4.life. 

Oddfellows posted information about the canned project, which it described as "a compelling short film depicting the main characters Joel and Ellie" yesterday, but has since taken the page down. You can still check out the full page via Google Cache, however, while someone has posted every previously published image from the site on Imgur. 

"Our proposal was to reinterpret each of the chapters of the game with a unique visual treatment", explains Oddfellows' breakdown, stating that the twenty minute animated short would "employ a distinct style that will vastly differentiate the animation from the gameplay."

Interestingly, it appears as though the piece would have introduced new canonical scenes into Joel and Ellie's story in addition to recapping key moments from the game itself, as seen from the storyboards showing the pair entering a barn "somewhere between 
Jackson County and their next adventure".

Unfortunately, the only real-time footage we have of the animation is in the short reel above, but the accompanying stills do at least provide us with an idea of the kind of style and tone that Oddfellows was going for. 

It's unclear why Sony decided to kick the can on Oddfellows' production, which presumably would have release sometime before the launch of The Last of Us Part 2, though there's a chance PlayStation is still working on something similar in-house in anticipation of the game's impending arrival. 

For more, check out everything revealed in Last of Us 2's Outbreak Day info drop, or watch below for our hands-on gameplay preview of the sequel.