What Naughty Dog is working on next has been a question that’s been asked on no few occasions over the past couple of years, and it’s no surprise that – owing to the popularity of the property, especially with its successful TV adaptation – many have assumed that The Last of Us Part 3 is going to be up next for the acclaimed studio. Sure enough, looks have claimed as much as well, with prominent leaker ViewerAnon having claimed in December last year that the next instalment in the post-apcalyptic franchise was Naughty Dog’s next project. Now, the leaker has taken to Twitter again to double down on those claims.
Prompted by recent leaks concerning the next game in the Last of Us franchise, the leaker said that though the game was still in early development, which meant leaked story details may or may not be tweked in the final product itself, The Last of Us Part 3 is indeed in development.
The leaked details in question have claimed that Naughty Dog is looking to cast five diverse characters who will form a crucial part of the story. These five characters – allegedly named Lucas, Mason, Val, Ezra, and Gracie – are scavengers surviving together in a Victorian house on the outskirts of an unnamed city. How their story will tie in with Ellie’s isn’t mentioned (via @NaughtyNDC on Twitter). There’s also no mention of whether the likes of Abby and Lev will return.
Meanwhile, ViewerAnon went on to add that “major filming” is happening this year, with motion capture work and audio recordings all set to happen in the coming months- though that, of course, is a process that tends to stretch out over long portions of production for games on this scale.
ViewerAnon also stated that the one story detail that’s definitely right is that Ellie is going to have “at least as important” a role in The Last of Us Part 3 as she did in Part 2. While that might not be entirely too surprising, as this series has taught us in the past, who the central protagonists will be and how prominent of a role they will have aren’t things we can just take for granted.
Naughty Dog itself has been unsurprisingly tightlipped over the possibility of a The Last of Us Part 3. It was confirmed a little over a year ago that the studio had started work on its next big single player project under the direction of Neil Druckmann, who himself said earlier this year that the studio would be willing to return to The Last of Us if it had more stories to tell. And based on his own past comments, interestingly enough, that is very much the case, with The Last of Us Part 3 having had a rough story outline ready for a while.
Of course, another project in the franchise has also been in the works for a while with a standalone multiplayer The Last of Us game, though recent reports have claimed that that project has been scaled back after being internally re-evalutated by Sony.
https://twitter.com/ViewerAnon/status/1675609371118825472
https://twitter.com/ViewerAnon/status/1675610433221443584
https://twitter.com/ViewerAnon/status/1675614068043022336
Rumour: The Last of Us Part III.
• Naughty Dog casting for 5 diverse new characters (Lucas, Mason, Val, Ezra & Gracie)
• Group of scavengers surviving on the outskirts of a post-apocalyptic city, crammed into a Victorian house that serves as their base. pic.twitter.com/U4qIohB3A4
— Naughty Dog Central (@NaughtyNDC) July 2, 2023
