Remember the fanart from The Last of Us portraying a grown up Ellie by concept artist Marek Okon that made us all believe in a sequel of the game for a few hours? It's finally done and you can see it above. Okon himself posted a lovely explanation on his Facebook account, also giving his own very personal version on what could happen after the game:
"We all heard the stories over the years. Tales of a girl being out there, immune to all this madness. And we knew that those stories were nothing but wishfull thinking, fairytales passed along by the campfire.
Believing those stories was a good measure of my desperation. I needed to find that girl.
You, who followed me on this hopeless journey choose to do so. Some of you paid the ultimate price for that. For my belief... But here we are, we found the girl. We found the hope.
Be careful and don't let her bite you."
There's got to be some sort of medical condition for when you paint fanarts of the projects you actually worked on. Well I guess its not as much a fanart as a homage to one of the best games I've ever played. I tried to imagine what future holds for Ellie and Joel and came up with this image - Ellie few years older, practicing her tunes, being chased by a woman who will hesitate at nothing to find the cure and save her loved ones.
Again, its only my own imagination at works here so please don't board the "TLOU2 confirmed" hype train ;] Its a (deeply) personal image.
It may be "just" a (absolutely stunning) piece of fanart, but it received some high praise indeed, directly from Creative Director Neil Druckmann, that just posted on Twitter:
Still braver and wiser beyond her years. Marek Okon's fanart is incredible -- I'd play it.
I'd play it too, Neil, you tease. And I'm sure at least a few million others would as well.
That said, you never know. This "fanart" might very well inspire something bigger. Inspiration is a can come from many direction, after all, and I can't think of many better sources than this. Come on Naughty Dog, you know you want to.