Despite how faithful the show has been to the games, there is one major change on the way in The Last of Us season 2. After Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) completed their journey to the Fireflies, they returned to the Jackson settlement to forge a new life on their own. With season 2 on the way, Joel and Ellie will need to be ready to face a bigger crisis than ever before, and the show promises to keep its focus close to The Last of Us Part II.
Yet, there will likely still be changes between the HBO show and the original game, similar to the differences between the game and The Last of Us season 1. One likely change to come in The Last of Us season 2 involves a song Joel sings to Ellie. In the original game, Joel sings "Future Days" by Pearl Jam to bond with Ellie in the midst of massive tension between the pair. But the song may not be included in The Last of Us season 2 thanks to the timeline changes between when the games are set compared to the HBO adaptation. The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann discussed this with Kinda Funny and hinted at the song possibly getting replaced. Check out his quote below (via Winter Is Coming):
“I could tell you we haven’t made a decision. We have talked about it for those exact reasons that you mentioned, that now it makes no sense for Joel to know that song. Now we could say, ‘Okay, it’s a parallel dimension and the song came out earlier.’ There’s ways, but that feels a little bit like a cheat. I will say that Pearl Jam specifically has now like even more so been engrained into the world of ‘The Last of Us,’ that if we don’t do that song, well, there’s other songs we could play with.”
Why The Last Of Us Could Change Joel's Song
The problem with including the now iconic Pearl Jam song in The Last of Us season 2 is that the timeline doesn't make much sense if it's included in the story. "Future Days" was released in 2013, while The Last of Us begins its apocalypse in 2003. There would be no way for Joel to have ever heard it, let alone learn how to perform it. If he just magically starts singing it, that would mean that he just pulled a fully written and composed song out of thin air.
If The Last of Us stays faithful to the games, it will have to adapt the spirit of the song, if not the song itself. The scene isn't popular because of the exact content of the music, but because it helps draw Ellie and Joel together. It offers a touching monent where Joel can make it clear that he values Ellie and considers her the most important part of his life. A song released prior to 2003 can accomplish that just as well as "Future Days" can.
The Last of Us season 1 didn't need to adapt every single moment of the game to make itself respectful of its roots, and The Last of Us season 2 doesn't have to be any different. Even if it is included, though, it wouldn't break the story too much. The vast majority of viewers aren't going to have any idea that Joel is singing a song that was written after the apocalypse. Whatever route The Last of Us ends up taking, as long as the scene happens at all, that's what counts.
Source: Kinda Funny (via Winter Is Coming)