'Don't Bet' on The Last of Us 3, Warns Neil Druckmann

"This could be it"

Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann has warned in a new interview that you should not expect The Last of Us 3 to be a surefire bet that actually gets made in the future. Despite the open-ended conclusion of the second game and his claim there's "probably one more chapter to the story", Druckmann suggests there aren't any guarantees around a third game.

The comment comes from a new interview with Variety discussing HBO's second season of its TV adaptation of The Last of Us. Towards the end of the piece, Druckmann is asked about The Last of Us 3. He responds: "I was waiting for this question. I guess the only thing I would say is don’t bet on there being more of Last of Us. This could be it."

Druckmann's latest quote somewhat goes against what he said at the ending to Naughty Dog's documentary for The Last of Us 2, which took a deep dive into the development of the sequel. At the time, he explained he had been unable to find a concept for a third The Last of Us game, "but recently that's changed" (as of February 2023). The concept he had was "as exciting as [The Last of Us] one, as exciting as [The Last of Us] two. It's its own thing and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there's probably one more chapter to the story."

Of course, since the documentary aired, Naughty Dog announced PS5 title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. It was assumed The Last of Us 3 wouldn't be the developer's next project after the second game released in 2020, and during that time span, The Last of Us Multiplayer was cancelled. At the time of its scrapping, Naughty Dog said it had "more than one ambitious, brand new single player game".

Do you still feel like The Last of Us 3 will become a reality one day, or has Druckmann poured cold water on your hopes? Let us know in the comments below.

[source variety.com]