Naughty Dog dropped a documentary on the making of the Last of Us Part II where he delves into plans for a third game in the blockbuster series.
In Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II, series creator Neil Druckmann ends the 2-hour documentary on YouTube with a look to the future of the franchise… Which includes confirmation that The Last of Us Part III has a concept/idea in place.
In previous interviews he has spoken about a spin-off story focused on Tommy; something Druckmann says he would still like to make.
He clarifies that the spin-off was not meant to be a full title and was shelved to make room for the developer and publisher to work on other issues related to development overall for their swath of titles.
“I still believe one day it will see the light of day. I don’t know if it will be a game or show… TBD.” Druckmann said. “The first game had such a clean concept of the unconditional love a parent feels for their child. 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…There’s a through-line from the first game about love. If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point.
“The great thing about working at Naughty Dog is that we don’t have to. 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. I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept, that, to me, is as exciting as I, as exciting as II, is its own thing, yet has this through-line for all 3. So it does feel like… there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
So yeah, obviously it’s still something that’s early in development. While we don’t know when Druckmann recorded this interview, it isn’t the first time word of a Part III has been bandied about. Either way, it’s an exciting—official—update for fans to hold on to.
