'The Last of Us' makers weigh in on Jesse's major decision

Before the end of season two, the fans of The Last of Us came to know that Jesse (Young Mazino) voted against Ellie’s quest to take revenge on Joel’s killers.

According to ScreenRant, the makers, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, opened up about Jesse's decision and his disagreements with Ellie on several topics, which is far from the game where he had an easygoing relationship with her.

Neil opined, “I wouldn’t describe him that way in the game. I think in our conversations of how Jesse voted, we both under the same kind of notion, yeah, he would vote to protect Jackson."

"Because Jesse is more about the larger community, at least the community he belongs to, not the community of mankind, than about the individual, or again, this pursuit of justice to just seem to the more practical characters, very impractical, like very unnecessary," he said.

“There's some overlap there between Jesse and Joel because I believe in similar circumstances, Joel would have voted the same way."

Similarly, his co-showrunner, Craig, added, “I loved how much of an Eagle Scout Jesse was, and I loved how, in the show, we make a bit more of a deal. I mean, put him on the council and all that, but we make a bigger deal that Jesse is considered the heir apparent."

Given Jesse is being trained to manage Jackson, the maker said, "He will be the Maria one day; he's going to run all of this. And that naturally makes us admire him. It makes us want to be like him."

"He feels like the ideal person, as opposed to Ellie, who's rolling around in the shabby material of her own fears and impulses."

"But what I love about this last episode, and particularly that moment where Ellie and Jesse confront each other, when she finds out how he voted, she makes a point that I think is so solid that I start to think, oh, yeah, so there goes another hero, because she's right," the showrunner said.

Explaining how the morals of the characters clash with each other, Craig said, "It's not that what she's doing is right, but his belief that he is moral is so challengeable and it is so arbitrary that I am moral and upstanding and sacrificial to people as long as they're on the inside of this wooden fence."

"But if they're outside the wooden fence, I'll just let them die, even if they're a kid. And I love that because no one in life really is an Eagle Scout, except for the actual Eagle Scout."

The season two's finale of The Last of Us has been aired. The production of Season 3 is expected to begin in June 2025.