Naughty Dog has finally announced the much awaited sequel of the critically acclaimed video game "The Last of Us," titled "The Last of Us Part 2."

As expected, the announcement has made the entire community excited, giving birth to tons of speculations about the next title.

Trailer Speculations: Is Joel Dead?

One of the most talked about speculation about the upcoming title is whether Joel is dead or alive. This rumor stemmed from the way Naughty Dog did not show Joel's face in the trailer. Check it out for yourself in the video below.

According to Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, while "The Last of Us" is a game about love, the sequel will be on hate, as reported by Kotaku. The story will probably be focusing on Ellie's hatred towards the Fireflies, as suggested in the trailer.

"If the first game was really about the love between these two characters, this story is the counter of that," Druckmann explained early on. "This is story is about hate, through Ellie this time. The first game you play as Joel, this game you play as Ellie. Ellie plays differently from Joel."

Our Thoughts

Personally, we think that the "Joel is dead" rumor is highly possible, with the way Ellie said that she will "kill every last one of them." The Joel who showed up in the trailer may possibly only exist in Ellie's imagination, and during that scene, she is vowing to avenge his death.

Still, that doesn't necessarily mean that Joel is already dead at the beginning of the game. There is a possibility that Joel and Ellie will start their new adventure together, and Joel will die at some point in the game.

Another point is, why is Naughty Dog even making Ellie the playable character? This alone may point to the fact that Joel will eventually end up dead during the course of the story. On the other hand, maybe the only reason is because fans want to have more time playing as Ellie this time around.

So is Joel going to die in "The Last of Us Part 2," or are we just too excited and overanalyzing the trailer a tad too much? We'll find out when the sequel is finally released.