Imaginative Last of Us fans came up with quite the theory about Joel from watching The Last of Us Part 2 teaser trailer. Before you go any further, know that we’ll be discussing spoilers for The Last of Us, and a possible plot detail in The Last of Us Part 2. The Last of Us Part 2 was announced at PSX over the weekend. The only thing we got with the reveal was a short trailer, but that’s all some series fans needed to start working on their theories. The trailer featured Ellie playing a guitar following what looked like quite the fight. Ellie looked tired, had bloody hands and some injuries, possibly the result of taking down a number of bad guys. Joel only showed up near the end, and we only heard his voice and saw him from back. This lead fans to speculate that Joel may actually be dead, and Ellie is just hallucinating his presence as a coping mechanism. The theory is that Ellie is on rampage to exact revenge on Joel’s killers, likely members of the Fireflies group, given the original game’s ending. This theory has been gaining traction on Reddit since the reveal, and on Twitter (via Polygon).
As interesting as the "Dead Joel" theory is I hope it isn't true. I'd like to see how the two deal with Joels actions at the end of last game