Growing pains

A friendly word of warning: don't continue reading this article if you haven't played The Last of Us. Seriously, we're going to spoil a major plot point over the next few paragraphs, so anything that you see beyond this pre-amble will be your own fault. Okay, this is the last sentence of padding that we're going to type, so hit that back button now if you haven't finished the game.

Has everybody gone? Good. Directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann recently muddied the waters regarding a potential sequel to Naughty Dog's survival horror smash, stressing that they're focused fully on Nathan Drake's latest escapade right now. However, these comments were contrary to what we'd heard earlier in the year, when an ex-employee listed The Last of Us 2 on his resume.

And now GLAAD, an organisation striving for equality in the LGBT community, has potentially uncovered a sequel starring Ellie, suggesting that the Ashley Johnson-portrayed protagonist could be poised to become the industry's most famous gay character in a "highly-anticipated sequel planned for 2016".

To be honest, we doubt that the firm would be privy to this kind of sensitive information, but a follow-up is looking increasingly likely if you ask us. Next year seems a bit too soon to us, though; the Californian company usually takes two years between titles, so we're probably looking at Holiday 2017 at the earliest for the continuation of the studio's post-apocalyptic plot.

[source glaad.org]