Neil Druckmann Says a Cure Would Have Worked in ‘The Last of Us’

Fans of The Last of Us have often debated a big question: if the Fireflies made a cure from Ellie, would it have really worked? According to Neil Druckmann, the answer is yes.

In the final episode of Season 1, just like in the game, Joel learns that the only way to create a cure is to remove a part of Ellie’s brain. This would kill her. Joel refuses to let that happen. He kills the Fireflies, takes Ellie, and lies to her. He says the cure wouldn’t have worked anyway, and they had to run because raiders attacked.

But many fans have wondered, what if the cure had worked?

Neil Druckmann, the creator of The Last of Us, finally gave a clear answer. On the Sacred Symbols podcast, he said:
“Could the Fireflies make a cure? Our intent was that, yes, they could.“

He also admitted that the science behind it might not be perfect.
“Now, is our science a little shaky that now people are questioning it? Yeah, it was a little shaky and now people are questioning that. I can’t say anything. All I can say is that our intent is that they would have made a cure. That makes it a more interesting philosophical question for what Joel does.”

At the start of the show, a scientist named Dr. Neuman warns that a fungus outbreak would be unstoppable.
“There are no treatments for this, no preventatives, no cures, they don’t exist – it’s not even possible to make them,” he says.

But decades later, a Firefly doctor believed Ellie’s immunity could be used to make a cure. Unfortunately, he was killed before he could try.

Marlene explains the process to Joel in the show:
“He’s going to remove it from her, multiply the cells in a lab, produce those chemical messengers, and then we can give it to everyone. He thinks it could be a cure, Joel.”

She also said Ellie has a “chemical messenger” in her brain that tricks the Cordyceps fungus into thinking she’s already infected. That’s why she’s immune.

This adds even more weight to Joel’s choice. If the cure really would have worked, then his decision to stop it changed everything. Ellie later finds out the truth and is angry with Joel.
“I was supposed to die. That was my purpose. My life would have fking mattered, but you took that from me,”** she says in Episode 6.

Druckmann’s answer makes Joel’s actions even more difficult to judge. Was he saving the girl he loved, or dooming the world?

Either way, fans now know the truth: the cure would have worked.