According to Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, the story outline for The Last of Us 3 is completely written. This was revealed by Druckmann during a recent episode of Script Apart Podcast where he detailed that he and his c-writer Halley Gross have written a story outline for The Last of Us 3 however Naughty Dog has no plans for it yet. This means that we might get to see The Last of Us 3 someday and the franchise is not technically dead.
Druckmann also revealed during the podcast that there has been ‘quite a bit’ of internal discussion about part 3 of The Last of Us however he also said that a lot of work is required for creating a game of this scale. Some of the key points from Neil Druckmann in the podcast include:
I don’t know how much I want to reveal… [co-writer Halley Gross] and I did write an outline for a story, that we’re not making – but I hope one day can see the light of day – that explores a little bit what happens after this game. We’ll see.
These games take so much to make. [Part 2], I’ve been thinking about it for seven years, between when the last game came out and when this came out […] You want to make sure you’re jazzed by the idea that you have, [that] it feels like it’s challenging.
We’ve now had two games that I feel speak to something universal as well as telling a very personal story for these characters. With one game, there’s no pattern of what a franchise is. With two games, there’s starting to be a pattern – now I feel like there are some structural and thematic themes you’d have to stick to if you’re making a third game.
Currently, Naughty Dog seems to be planning their next project. We previously got a rumor that a remake of the original The Last of Us is coming however there is no official announcement on it at this point. Druckmann detailed:
After we finish one of our big titles, we take a long time to explore different ideas, whether it’s going to be Last of Us III, whether it’s something new, or whether there’s some old franchise we want to go back to. I like to fully explore all of those, then look at, like okay, we have all of these ideas in front of us. As a studio, what do we want to commit to? Because it’s a huge commitment – monetary, time, passion, talent, so you think about all the opportunity costs that come with that.
We still have to wait and see whether The Last of Us: Part II receives a multiplayer mode similar to the original title’s Factions mode. Many players are still asking for a multiplayer aspect of the sequel because it was really good in the first game. It also made its way into the PS4 remaster of The Last of Us. The Last of Us series is also in the works for HBO.
Would you like Naughty Dog to make The Last of Us 3 and what would you expect from the third title in the franchise? Let us know in the comments section below.
