After months and months of rumors, Neil Druckmann officially speaks on The Last of Us 3 to confirm the sequel that many players have been waiting for.
The Last of Us quickly established itself as one of the strongest licenses in PlayStation’s portfolio. At the start of 2023, it alone had more than 37 million sales worldwide. Since then, a remake, a TV series that won everything in its path and a remaster have happened. The success of Naughty Dog’s license reached its peak last year and the announcement of The Last of Us 3 was just a formality. Rumors have been circulating for many months now, we will soon be able to leave the conditional behind us.
The Last of Us 3 officially in development
After the phenomenal success of the HBO series and Naughty Dog’s efforts to bring the previous episodes up to date, we suspected that they were not going to stop there. The misadventures of Ellie, Abby and Joel could have amply served as a conclusion to this already striking saga, but the Californian studio still has other stories to tell. Neil Druckmann, co-director of the franchise, had already more or less spilled the beans in 2021, saying that a draft of a The Last of Us 3 had already been scribbled. Since Naughty Dog refused to confirm if this third episode was one of their next games, it is now confirmed.
In the documentary dedicated to the creation of The Last of Us Part 2, Druckmann finally confirmed that a third episode was in development, or at least still in the conceptual phase several months ago. An opus which will visibly deal with themes fundamentally from its predecessors, but whose story and words will be part of the continuity of the saga.
The first game revolved around the concept of the unconditional love a parent feels for their child. The second about the pursuit of justice at all costs, justice for those you love, it seemed to us that there was a clear concept there and a continuity with the first game, about love. If we never get a chance to remake a game, that’s a good end point. One final piece, the story is over.
I wondered, is there a concept here for a sequel? And for years I couldn’t find it, but recently things have changed. I don’t have the story yet, but I have a concept that, to me, is as exciting as the others and is its own thing, while having a common throughline for all three games. So there will probably be one more chapter to this story.
Neil Druckmann, on The Last of Us 3
Another game in the meantime
Druckmann also returned to his headline-grabbing statement. He explains that he had, at one point, written a story with Tommy at its center. “ I hope we can do it one day. It was always a short story, never a full game “, he clarified. At that time the studio’s priority was above all to improve the working conditions of its employees and its production. The story in question was eventually trashed. “ I believe that one day she will see the light of day. I don’t know if it will be with a game or a TV series“. Enough to further fuel hopes around a spin-off of the HBO series The Last of Us.
The Last of Us 3, however, will not be Naughty Dog’s next game. As a reminder, rumors point to an entirely new license which would revolve around either science fiction or fantasy. It has been in development for several years and should logically arrive on our PS5s. It’s difficult to be so optimistic for this next episode of TLOU. As the story has not yet been written, pre-production is not expected to start for a while. We will probably have to wait until the PS6 or whatever the name of the next generation of console is. Since the documentary was filmed in April 2023, there’s a good chance things have progressed since then. At what point ? Difficult to say, even if a rumor from a proven source suggested that the motion capture could have started at the end of 2023.