You may have noticed some differences between the Ellie you’ve come to know and the Ellie you saw in this week’s The Last of Us trailer. (I actually didn’t.) She received a small reworking recently, and Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has explained why.
“After delving further into the game’s narrative over the past few months, we decided to modify Ellie’s model to better reflect [actress] Ashley [Johnson]’s personality, and also resemble a slightly younger teen more fitting to the story,” Druckmann told IGN. “We’re happy with the final result shown in the cinematic we have released today, and hope the fans like her too.”
The Last of Us is due for PlayStation 3 in late 2012 or early 2013.