The Last Of Us 2: Abby & Joel’s Golf Club Scene Inspired By Real Story

The famous The Last of Us Part 2 scene featuring Abby, Joel and a golf club was actually inspired by a real story. The Last of Us Part 2 continues to smash records across the gaming industry, many months after its initial release on the PlayStation 4. Not only does it hold the title of the game with the most award nominations at the upcoming BAFTAs, but it also holds the title of the most awarded game of all time. In January 2021, The Last of Us Part 2 knocked CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 off the top spot, where the medieval fantasy RPG had spent a comfortable 5 years.

Even with all of the praise and awards showering The Last of Us Part 2 there is still one character and one scene, that caused a rift in The Last of Us gaming community on its reveal. The scene where Abby Anderson, former Firefly and daughter of surgeon Jerry Anderson, beats the life out of Joel Miller with a golf club. As soon as this clip surfaced, rather unfortunately leaking online several months before the game’s official release, Abby became one of the most hotly debated characters in gaming. Her actions within TLOU2 divided the internet, with voice actress Laura Bailey and game director Neil Druckmann both receiving inexcusable abuse online for the fictional character’s behavior.

While the volatile reactions to The Last of Us Part 2’s plot have calmed down of late, new details and Easter eggs continue to come to light. Most recently, Neil Druckmann has shared how he came to settle on the infamous golf club scene. Speaking with The Washington Post, Druckmann revealed that he was actually wounded with a golf club when he was 16. The result of the impact, which was an accident after a friend took a badly timed swing with a golf club at a driving range, left Druckmann covered in blood and needing 30 stitches. Druckmann revealed that there is still a dent in his skull today from the impact.

Even though this event is what eventually inspired the golf club scene between Abby and Joel in The Last of Us Part 2, it was not actually in the original script. At first, Druckmann had Abby using a knife on Joel. Druckmann told The Washington Post that his first idea was to have Abby impale Joel in the spine and then twist the knife to paralyze him. After much deliberation, the team at Naughty Dog decided that this style of attack was more suited to Ellie. As such, Ellie uses a blade as she travels to Seattle to exact her revenge for Joel’s murder.

Regardless of personal opinions, there is no doubt that Laura Bailey did a fantastic job portraying Abby in The Last of Us Part 2. Most recently, the actress was awarded the Best Performance accolade at the 2020 Game Awards for her role. Meanwhile, Neil Druckmann has got The Last of Us fans excited for future announcements. Sharing a Tweet, Naughty Dog’s co-president revealed that the company has “several cool things” on the go, but that fans will have to be patient as nothing is ready to be revealed yet. It still remains a mystery as to whether these cool things are The Last of Us related, or something entirely different.

Source: The Washington Post

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