Melancholy musician

Try not to get too excited, but there appears to be activity at Naughty Dog – and not of the employee departure type. At the end of last week, The Last of Us’ game director Bruce Straley teased some kind of prototype that gave him goosebumps on Twitter, and now an image of an older Ellie has appeared online. Who would like to connect the dots?

The shot was spotted on the official Facebook page of Marek Okon, a freelance concept artist who worked on last year’s survival horror smash. Even more interestingly, it appears to show a grown up Ellie strumming an acoustic guitar, which will carry some significance for those who’ve completed the game. Alongside the picture, the skilled sketcher said: “Let me tease you something... It’s coming.”

While it's natural to assume that the painter may be referring to a sequel of some kind, he could also be hinting at some form of personal project, or perhaps even a graphic novel or comic book. Still, we reckon that the upcoming PlayStation 4 port The Last of Us Remastered would provide a great place to tease a follow-up – and let’s not forget that the developer does have a track record for that sort of thing.

Update: It's not a sequel. "So before it gets blown out of proportion – this is going to be strictly a personal image," Okon said, no doubt in response to the overnight furore. "Is it about The Last of Us 2? Not really... Maybe... It's classified. But seriously, it's going to be just a fan art."

[source facebook.com, via dualshockers.com]