The Last Of Us Part II. (Naughty Dog)
A plot has been outlined for The Last of Us 3, even if no plans are in place to start production.
Creative Director Neil Druckmann and co-writer of the game Halley Gross were speaking recently on the Script Apart podcast.
Druckmann revealed that an outline for a possible sequel has been penned by the pair and he hopes “one day it will see the light of day”.
“I don’t know how much I want to reveal… [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,” he said.
Whether the game would continue with Ellie’s story, follow Abby or focus on a new character is unclear.
Speaking of Ellie, originally The Last of Us Part II had a different ending.
In one draft, Ellie would pick up a toy belonging to her and Dina’s baby when back on the farm, before swiftly leaving. The implication is she would pursue them.
However, Gross spoke on the podcast of wanting to leave the ending open to interpretation by the player.
Druckmann also spoke of what the studio, Naughty Dog, would be pursuing next.
“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 3, whether it’s something new, whether there’s some old franchise we want to go back to,” he said.
“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.”
At the very least, he’s working with HBO on the TV adaptation of The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie.
Rumours have also circulated around a possible remake of the first game in the series for PlayStation 5, as well as a new Uncharted game supervised by Naughty Dog.