One of the cut levels from The Last of Us Part 2 almost had a particularly traumatic jump scare that would have replaced a clicker in a wall with Joel's dead body.
If you've ever been curious about what went into the making of The Last of Us Part 2, then you're going to have a great time with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. Not only does it feature a bunch of developer commentary for the main game, but it also features three "Lost Levels" that were cut from the game during its development.
Two of the Lost Levels are pretty well-known sections that are referenced in the final version of the game, The Jackson Dance and Boar Hunt, but there's one that's a little bit more of a surprise to see – the Sewers level. This removed section of The Last of Us Part 2 would have seen Ellie exploring the sewers at some point during her journey through Seattle.
Although the level itself doesn't have all that much to it (despite seeming like one of the more finished Lost Levels in the game), there is one part that would have absolutely ruined players if it had made it into the final game. Towards the end of the cut level, Naughty Dog design director Pete Ellis reveals that one part of the Sewers trip, which mostly focuses on Ellie avoiding Clickers, would have briefly made reference to Joel's death.
The Lost Level then follows up on this by actually showing an early version of what this would have looked like. As Ellie is crawling through the sewers, she passes by a Clicker that is stuck to the wall. As she gets up close to it, the Clicker very quickly transforms into Joel's dead body, which would be one of the few times in the game that we actually get to see it outside of the moment actually happening.
This cut moment was supposed to represent how Ellie is still traumatised by what happened to Joel at the start of The Last of Us Part 2, but since the whole level ended up being removed from the game, we luckily never got to have such a gut-wrenching moment in the final release.
