In an segment seen in the recently released Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II documentary video, Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann hinted that the developer’s next title will likely not be another Last of Us title as he wasn’t able to “find [its] concept” for years. This suggests that the upcoming title being developed is likely not another installment in the series. However, Druckmann stated that “there’s probably one more chapter to this story.” He stated that while he doesn’t have a story for the upcoming title, he has a concept that “is as exciting as I, as exciting as II, is its own thing, yet has this through-line for all 3.” Additionally, Druckmann also stated that a “small story” set after the events of the second game following Tommy was written but was then shelved. A remaster of the latest title in the series, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, launched on January 19 for PlayStation 5.
Naughty Dog's next big single player game is seemingly not The Last of Us: Part 3.
Though creative director Neil Druckmann says the concept is there and there "probably is one more chapter to this story".
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— Shinobi602 (@shinobi602) February 2, 2024
The full relevant snippet via Neogaf:
I did some other interview where someone asked me about The Last of Us, and would there be any more stories or something. I mentioned we have written a story that takes place after Last of Us II that stars Tommy. I hope one day we get to make it. The headlines across the industry were like, ‘Naughty Dog Has Outlined The Last of Us Part III.’ And that’s actually wrong. It was always a small story, it was never a full title.
At the time, we had higher priorities at Naughty Dog, to fix our pipeline, to fix work-life balance issues. Just based on where we were, I didn’t wanna prioritize this 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.
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 and 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 last bite of the apple, the story’s done.
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.
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