Will there be The Last of Us Part 3 on PlayStation?
The Last of Us is one of Sony’s most popular franchises on PlayStation. From the blockbuster video games, has spawned a critically-acclaimed television series on HBO.
With just about everyone fascinated with the universe of The Last of Us, Buzzfeed sat down with Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann — writer and director of the video games and co-creator of the HBO series — for some behind-the-scenes questions. One of those questions involved the future of The Last of Us as a video game series on PlayStation.
To date, there have been two video games in The Last of Us. The first was released in 2013 and followed the journey of Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Elli, across the post-apocalyptic United States. The game was both a critical and commercial success. It’s also what the first season of the HBO series is largely based on.
A sequel to the game was released seven years later in 2020. Without getting into spoilers, because the second season of the HBO series might cover this game, the story was set five years after the first game. In the game, you play as Ellie on a quest for revenge for a murder, and Abby, a soldier involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult.
Like the first game, the sequel was a commercial success but it was also met with much more criticism — some valid and some a result of internet trolls upset with some of Naughty Dog’s direction for the game. The game was review bombed by users on Metacritic, with many complaining of “social justice warrior” politics. Despite the trolls, The Last of Us Part 2 was largely viewed as a successful sequel.
Which begs the question, are we ever getting The Last of Us Part 3? The question was posed to Druckmann, who offered the following response:
“I know there’s a bunch of people wondering about The Last of Us Part 3 and whether that will be a thing or not. All I could say is, at Naughty Dog we’re very, very privileged that our publisher is Sony — which means Sony funds our games, supports us, and we’re owned by Sony.
“They have supported us every step of the way to follow our passions — meaning that just because something is successful, people think there’s all this pressure and we have to make a sequel. That’s not the case.”
Druckmann likened The Last of Us to another successful Naughty Dog franchise, Uncharted. Druckmann confirmed that they’ve officially moved on with Uncharted after putting their final brushstroke on the story.
“Likewise, with The Last of Us, it’s up to us whether we want to continue it or not.
“Our process is the same thing we did when we did Part 2, which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. If we can’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part 2 and that will be the end.”
The Last of Us Part 2 had a pretty conclusive ending so I can’t imagine what a third game would be about. Druckmann did previously reveal that he had written a story outline for a potential third game in the series, but offered no further details. He added in a more recent interview with The Hollywood reporter that he believes there’s still “more story to tell.” But again, he didn’t elaborate.
It’s possible that a third game in the entry wouldn’t necessarily follow Ellie or Abby or any of the previous characters we had played as already. There were other survivors we met along the way. Perhaps we could experience the world of The Last of Us through their eyes.
Do you want to see a third installment in The Last of Us?
