The Last of Us TV show wasn’t the first announced adaptation of the beloved Naughty Dog game. Spider-Man and Evil Dead director Sam Raimi was originally in talks to produce a movie back in 2014, and there was even a poster made for a San Diego Comic-Con panel.
You can check out the first poster image below, which was shared by Sony at the time. It featured what seems to be a slightly older version of Ellie holding a knife and wearing her signature backpack.
Check out the special #SDCC limited edition poster for #TheLastOfUsMovie. Who caught the secret panel with Sam Raimi? pic.twitter.com/90DEkjkeIgJuly 25, 2014
Now the poster has resurfaced, fans have been reacting to it on social media. “I remember being so excited for this all those years ago. Imagine if this got made,” one wrote, while another added: “Is this an alternate reality? Since when did this exist?”
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Appearing at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014, Raimi told crowds (per Empire): “I think it’s going to be a great character journey and a great love story and a really great horror picture.” He also revealed that they had met with Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams to play Ellie.
The movie was due to be written by Neil Druckmann, the video game creator and co-showrunner of the HBO show. Table reads even happened, which featured eventual Abby actor Kaitlyn Dever reading for the part of Ellie. Ultimately, it entered development hell and the rights lapsed in 2019.
Druckmann has spoken about why the movie ultimately didn’t happen candidly. “When I worked on the movie version, a lot of the thinking and notes were like, ‘How do we make it bigger? How do we make the set pieces bigger?'” he told the Script Apart podcast (H/T IGN). “It didn’t work for The Last of Us, and I think that’s ultimately why the movie wasn’t made.”
The Last of Us has since been adapted into an extremely successful TV show with a third season on the way. For more on that, check out our guide to The Last of Us season 3 as well as all the upcoming game adaptations on the way.