In The Last of Us Remastered's commentary with actress Ashley Johnson and director Neil Druckmann, in the scene where Joel found Ellie in the abandoned house, Ashley stated that she improvised by shoving him out of frustration, because she felt emotional reading for the scene where Joel is planning to leave her to Tommy.

Druckmann stated that the team wanted him to remove this scene where Joel is being too cold to Ellie, but he refused because he felt it was important to keep in the scene that Ellie is "being so vulnerable and [Joel is] having these feelings. He's trying to shut it down". Druckmann also commented that when Joel said to Ellie "You're not my daughter", he stated that while that quote is almost an insult, it's the opposite of what he actually feels.

In The Last of Us Remastered's commentary with director Neil Druckmann, he stated that Jeffrey Pierce originally auditioned for the role of Joel, which ultimately ended up being given to Troy Baker instead. When the team began finding someone to cast as Tommy, they called Pierce back in and were impressed with his performance, landing him the role of Tommy. Baker stated that he felt a chemistry between himself and Pierce that made for a sense of realism in Joel and Tommy's relationship.

Druckmann also stated that Ashley Scott was originally intended to play Tess instead of Maria, and that there were no auditions for either of those characters.

In The Last of Us Remastered's commentary with director Neil Druckmann, he stated that there was originally going to be dark music during the scene when Marlene revealed that Ellie was going to be sacrifice for a cure. However, Druckmann told the composers not to do that, because it would paint her as a bad person rather than a good person who is trying to save humanity. Instead, he let them use the dark music for Joel, because when Ellie's life is on the line, he slips back into murdering anyone who would try to kill her. Neil also stated that this scene defined the theme of the game: "as a father... you will... kill everybody else to save your kid."

In The Last of Us Remastered's commentary with director Neil Druckmann, he stated that him and the team initially didn't want to do an opening credits sequence. They changed their minds, partially because they felt that going from Sarah's death to a timeskip of twenty years later was too sudden. On top of that, the team found that when playtesters watched it in succession, they weren't paying attention when Tess and the rest of the game's world was introduced, because they were still focused on Sarah's death, so an opening sequence was needed to help bridge the gap between those events. The idea they came up with for the intro was time lapsed video footage of fungus growing, because the disease and outbreak in the game was based on a cordyceps fungus that spread through spores. The team contacted a group at Sony San Diego who made the whole opening sequence for them, making use of fungal kits to allow fungi to grow in their bathrooms, which took several days of filming to produce. The only use of computer animation in the opening sequence were the black spores seen throughout the intro.

In the prologue, if the models of Joel and Tommy were removed, the game will crash after Sarah gets into the car with them, and restarting the checkpoint will allow the player to roam around some areas, from the glitched car to the Louis' burning farm.

When you unlock all the "Shiv Doors", you'll get a trophy called "Master of Unlocking". This is a reference to Barry Burton's infamous quote to Jill Valentine, when he gave her a lockpick in Resident Evil (1996).

During development, several of the developers thought the game would ruin Naughty Dog's reputation and tank completely, leading to the studio's downfall. The game eventually wound up winning multiple game of the year awards and was praised by critics and gamers alike.

Spoiler:In chapter 7 "Tommy's Dam", when Ellie helps Joel to find a way to cross the dam, Ellie puts her hand up to Joel for a high five, giving the player the choice to high five her or leave her hanging.
This is a reference to The Walking Dead: Season One Episode 3 in the "Travelier Motel", when Duck helps Lee to find what he's looking for, Duck puts his hand up for a high five, giving the player the same choices.

In the "Left Behind" DLC, the name of the arcade place "Raja's Arcade" is a reference to Eddy Raja & Rika Raja from Uncharted series. Also it shares the same reference name for "Club Raja" from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

When you enter Raja's Arcade you'll find an Jak X: Combat Racing arcade machine from Jak and Daxter series. Once Ellie interacts with it, she'll pretend she's playing while describing the actual gameplay. And once she's done playing and criticizing the game, this awards a trophy named "Nobody's Perfect" with a Jak and Daxter picture. The reason for this is because a lot of Naughty Dog developers weren't happy about the game's success in the past.

It was revealed during a special one time live event that an extended ending had been written for the game that was never recorded, and went entirely unused. It took place one night after the end of the game, Spoiler: at Tommy's Dam. The scene shows Spoiler:Joel telling Ellie that Tommy is trying to set him up with a girl named Esther, with Ellie acting distant. Joel then begins to play guitar and sing (performed by Joel's actor, Troy Baker). After a joke is told and tension is broken, Joel gifts the guitar to Ellie. The scene would then fade with her strumming a chord. How it all plays out can be disputed, however, as it was only shown to live attendees, which only complicates things, as the game's writer, Neil Druckmann, says that it will never be released in any form. Neil also stated that the scene was intended to Spoiler:be a goodbye for Joel and Ellie, the former of which dies near the start of The Last of Us Part II.

In Bill's Town, near the graveyard, is a house that highly resembles the house from the beginning of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead.

In the chapter "Pittsburgh" during the "Alone and Forsaken" section, Spoiler:Ellie finally learns how to whistle as she slowly begins to whistle a tune. Ellie is actually whistling the main theme of the Uncharted series, another series created by Naughty Dog.

During the opening segment where you play as Spoiler:Joel's daughter, you can find a painting of a lone deer in a snowy forest.
This is foreshadowing later in the game Spoiler:where you play as Ellie in a snowy forest hunting a deer, which is the only other time in the game you don't play as Joel.

The eye exams found on the walls of Spoiler:the Hospital read "RUN YOU R NEARLY THERE DONT QUIT!!"

Three PS3s can be found throughout the game:

• During the opening segment under the TV in the family room.
• On the bottom shelf of a bookcase Spoiler:in a games room in the University.
• In a store Spoiler:while escaping from David's gang in Lakeside Resort.

Upon beating the game, Spoiler:you can see Ellie's switchblade lying against the window at the main menu.

Buckley, the dog Joel pets, is named after Troy Baker (The voice of Joel)'s own dog, who died 3 years before the game released.

The original pitch for the game was called Mankind. In this version, all of the infected would have been women. Ellie would have been the only female to be immune, and Joel was protecting her in order to bring her to a lab to develop a vaccine. The idea was scrapped after several female Naughty Dog employees voiced criticism and concerns over the concept. Neil Druckmann has said that "the reason it failed is because it was a misogynistic idea."

Ellie's appearance was revised after the announcement trailer due to a resemblance with the actor Ellen Page.

At one point during the game's development, Naughty Dog was put under pressure to change Ellie's positioning from the front of the cover art to the background. It is suggested that this was because of the misconception that if you have a female character on the cover, the game will sell less. Naughty Dog refused.