New details about the inner workings of developer Naughty Dog have come to light thanks to the release of Grounded 2: Making The Last of Us Part 2. The 2-hour documentary, showcasing the development of The Last of Us Part 2, also sees series co-creative, creative director, and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann speaking about the possibility of a third instalment in the series.
Starting off, Druckmann addressed an interview he did several months after The Last of Us Part 2’s launch, where he said an outline for third game was in place. According to Druckmann, that story was supposed to be a smaller one in scale and would be focused on Tommy. Whether or not Naughty Dog will ever actually bring that story to light is up in the air, but at the time, when the outline was written, according to Druckmann, the studio had other priorities- like fixing its internal pipelines and working practices to quash years of crunch-related issues.
“I did some other interview where someone asked me about The Last of Us, and would there be any more stories or something,” he said. I mentioned we have written a story that takes place after The Last of Us Part 2 that stars Tommy, and I hope one day we get the make it. And the headlines across the industry were like, ‘Naughty Dog has outlined The Last of Us Part 3. And that’s actually wrong. It was always a small story, it was never like a full title.
“At the time, we had higher priorities at Naughty Dog, to fix our pipeline, to fix our work-life balance issues. Just based on where we were, I didn’t prioritize that story, so that story was shelved. I still believe one day it will see the light of day. I don’t know if it’ll be a game or a show… TBD.”
So does that mean Naughty Dog has nothing in mind for The Last of Us Part 3? Well, not exactly. Druckmann went on to explain that though he doesn’t have a fully-formed story in mind for the series’ next game yet, he does have a concept that he feels would serve as a natural extension of the first two games- even though he does seem to suggest that for now, the studio might be focused on something else that it’s “passionate about”.
“The first game had such a clean concept of the unconditional love a parent feels for their child,” Druckmann said. “The second one, once we landed on this idea of the pursuit of justice at any cost, justice for the ones you love, it felt like there’s a clean concept here, and there’s a throughline from the first game about love.
“If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point. That last bite of the apple, the story’s done. The great thing about working at Naughty Dog is that we don’t have to. So it’s always like, we would love another Last of Us, but if you guys are passionate about something else, we’ll support this other thing. Very privileged position to be in. I never take that for granted.”
“I’ve been thinking about, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for now years, I haven’t been able to find that concept- but recently that’s changed,” Druckmann continued. “I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept, that, to me, is as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
This particular interview, as confirmed in the documentary, was filmed in April 2023, which, combined with Druckmann’s quotes, would suggest that The Last of Us Part 3 is still several years away. As Naughty Dog confirmed in December, however, it has more than one major single player game in development, which could mean that the one that isn’t Last of Us – presumably new IP, since Naughty Dog says it’s done with Uncharted – will release before a Part 3.
Grounded 2: Making The Last of Us Part 2 was released for free shortly after the release of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. The remastered release of the critically acclaimed title features upgraded visuals, a new roguelike mode, and other bonuses on top of the already-impressive main story mode.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is available exclusively on the PS5. For more details, check out our review, where we gave the title a score of 9 out of 10.