You’ve almost certainly not seen the last of The Last of Us.
While the media trained Neil Druckmann gave very little away in his interview with Variety, he hinted several times that there will likely be a third The Last of Us game. You just need to read between the lines.
Pertinently, when asked about why he’s decided to step away from day-to-day duties on the third season of HBO’s hit television adaptation, he said:
“With all the various Last of Us things I’m working on – not just the show – with all the various games I’m working on, the biggest one that takes up most of my time is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, our next big IP for Naughty Dog and PlayStation, it felt like I could better serve all of my responsibilities if I stayed at a higher level.”
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There are a few juicy tidbits here.
Firstly, Druckmann notes that he’s working on multiple The Last of Us projects beyond the television show, and it’d make sense for one of those to be a game.
He also mentions “the various games” he’s contributing to, plural. We know that Naughty Dog is cooking multiple single player projects, with Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet being its primary focus for now.
But later in the interview he mentions that the team did debate whether to go straight into The Last of Us 3, but it was passionate about the sci-fi story of Intergalactic and so decided to place its focus there first.
He explained:
“We were debating whether we should just go straight into The Last of Us 3, and we had a really long period where we looked at ideas for maybe what could be in that game. We looked at – we have Uncharted as an IP, we have Jak and Daxter as an IP. But the team was really excited to do this sci-fi thing that we’ve been talking about for a while, and that’s where our passions lie, so that’s where we’re moving forward.”
It makes sense for the team to do something different, as Intergalactic will likely prove a nice palette cleanser for the studio.
But our guess is that The Last of Us 3 is also in very early production behind-the-scenes. It’s likely a small team of writers and designers at this stage, but we suspect that’s what the studio will move onto next.
Do you want more The Last of Us, or has the franchise already run its course for you? Let us know in the comments section below.