There is a key moment in The Last of Us: Part II involving a golf club, and game director and writer Neil Druckmann has now provided more context on the matter. Druckmann also shared his own personal history with golf and how he sustained a permanent head injury from it.
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW
The character Abby brutally murders Last of Us protagonist Joel with a golf club in The Last of Us: Part II. It's a gut-wrenching sequence that sticks with you.
Druckmann told The Washington Post that the decision to have Abby kill Joel with a golf club came later in the writing process. Originally, Abby was going to stab Joel with a knife and paralyze him by twisting the blade into his back. But it was changed to a golf club later on.
"For a long time, Abby stabbed Joel in the back then twisted the knife to paralyze him," Druckmann said. "But knife felt more like an Ellie thing. We wanted something different."
Druckmann does have a personal connection to golf club-related injuries, as he was struck in the head by a golf club when he was 16. He needed 30 stitches and he still has a dent in his skull from it.
"My friend was into [golf]," Druckmann said. "He invited me to go to a driving range. He was showing me the ropes. I stood behind him, and got smacked on the back swing. Blood everywhere."
Naughty Dog hasn't decided if it will make The Last of Us 3 or something else next, but the company is progressing forward with a Last of Us TV show at HBO. Recently, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were cast in the roles of Joel and Ellie, respectively.
In other news, Naughty Dog is working on a Last of Us 2 multiplayer game, but we haven't heard a peep about it in a very long time.