Sam Raimi could have made a The Last of Us movie starring a "Game of Thrones" star

HBO's The Last of Us wasn't the first attempt to bring the Naughty Dog story to the screen. Back in 2014, Spider-Man and Evil Dead director Sam Raimi was in talks to make a feature film adaptation of the game.

Sony released an image at the time showing a slightly older version of Ellie holding a knife with her signature backpack on her shoulders.

The poster has since resurfaced on social media, sparking a wave of nostalgia among fans.

I remember being so excited for this all those years ago. Imagine if this got made," one wrote, while another added: "Is this an alternate reality? Since when did this exist?

Appearing at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014, Raimi told the crowd:

I think it's going to be a great character journey and a great love story and a really great horror picture.

He also revealed that the team had already met with Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams to play Ellie.

The screenplay was set to be written by Neil Druckmann, the game creator and one of the co-showrunners on the HBO series. Table reads even took place, with Kaitlyn Dever – who would go on to play Abby in the TV show years later – reading for the part of Ellie.

The movie sat in development hell for years before the rights lapsed in 2019, later getting picked up by HBO.

Druckmann has spoken candidly about why the film ultimately fell apart.

When I worked on the movie version, a lot of the thinking and notes were like, 'How do we make it bigger? How do we make the set pieces bigger?' It didn't work for The Last of Us, and I think that's ultimately why the movie wasn't made.

The story has since found a far more successful home on screen as an HBO series, earning strong praise from critics and audiences alike. A third season is already in the works.