Naughty Dog boss and The Last Of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann has teased “one more chapter” in the franchise with The Last Of Us Part 3.
The studio recently released Grounded 2, a making-of documentary for 2020’s The Last Of Us Part 2. Originally the two-hour film was scrapped due to the pandemic but was revisited following the announcement of The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered.
Towards the end of the film, Druckmann confirmed he had a “concept” for a third instalment after years of struggling to find a strong narrative. “Recently that’s changed,” he said.
“I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept that, to me, is as exciting as [what has come before but is still] its own thing, yet has this throughline for all three [games]. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
Previously, Druckmann denied the possibility of The Last Of Us Part 3. “Just because something is successful, people think there’s all this pressure and we have to make a sequel. That’s not the case,” he said last year.
“If we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love – just like the first and second game did – then we will tell that story. If we can’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the end.”
Despite this positive update, it would seem work has not begun on the creation of the sequel just yet. Last December, the studio canceled their online multiplayer game set within The Last Of Us universe to focus on single-player titles. Naughty Dog went on to confirm it had “more than one ambitions, brand new single player game” in the works.
In a four star review of their latest release, NME wrote: “The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered tells a difficult, emotional story with phenomenal character development. This remaster doesn’t make any groundbreaking changes, but better technical support and the neat addition of No Return make a decent case for upgrading.”
In other news, Paradox Interactive has confirmed it will be delaying the Early Access launch of Life By You.