by With a hugely successful TV adaptation, The last of us did the unthinkable and proved that it’s possible to make a good show based on a video game. Then there are the youngest Remake of the first game to break sales recordsand you certainly think that momentum will lead to another single player TLoU Game? However, according to series co-creator Neil Druckmann, developer Naughty Dog is not currently working on it, apart from one unannounced project and the upcoming one TLoU multiplayer titlesoften referred to as “factions”.
Over the past few decades, Naughty Dog has built its brand as one of the most ambitious and successful developers of PlayStation exclusives. Great success with the icon Crash Bandicoot Series on the first console, followed by Jak & Daxter in the PS2 era, and then to do the much-loved Unexplored And The last of us series for PS3 and PS4, it’s hard not to be excited about a Naughty Dog title. But while the developer has turned individual entries into successful multi-sequel franchises, a single-player follows through 2020 The Last of Us: Part II is reportedly not what the team is actively working on.
Naughty Dog doesn’t work The Last of Us: Part III
in a (n Interview with Kind of funny after HBO’s season finale The last of usDruckmann reflected on the changes the studio has made, which involves a creative process that avoids wasting time working on things the team isn’t actively interested in. And sometimes that includes not chasing the momentum of past successes.
When asked by Blessing Adeoye Jr. if the momentum of the hit TV adaptation means Naughty Dog is feeling the pressure to “keep hitting those home runs,” Druckmann said:
I’m very lucky that I don’t have to think like that. I joined a studio that was already so successful that we could be kind of prima donnas and just do whatever we wanted. I know not everyone has that privilege, but I don’t take it lightly. So at the end of each project, we specifically examine several different projects. Some of them could be a sequel, and then a bunch of new ideas, and then us [ask] “Where are our passions”? For that is the fire that must be sustained for years. And when you pick the wrong projects and then burn out from that idea because you weren’t passionate about it […] you’re screwed That’s how I think you do anything mediocre when you lose enthusiasm for it.
printman has made similar statements previously regarding speculation about a possible sequel Part II. Though he never quite shuts the door, he has said, “If we can’t think of something, we have a very strong ending Part II and that will be the end.” Many may recall that Druckmann expressed similar thoughts after the first game, wo TLoU‘S World is “ripe for more stories:”
Whether or not we return to Joel and Ellie, or whether we return to the world or not, is anyone’s guess. I can tell you that there are people in the studio who would love to come back to these characters, but we would only do it if we had something new, something meaningful to say. Because the last thing we want to do is repeat ourselves.
But of course, many don’t want it to be “the end.” Luckily there is something new last of us coming, just not a single player game. Although he conceded that “the fans really want to The Last of Us: Part III‘ and that he can’t say which single-player game Naughty Dog is actively working on next, ‘the thing we’ve been most looking forward to’, according to Druckmann, isn’t another sequel to The last of us. Druckmann said Naughty Dog expects to release more information about the upcoming multiplayer launch The last of ushowever which he previously described as “the most ambitious project we have ever undertaken.”
Druckmann described the upcoming multiplayer entry into TLoU‘s universe as “the first last of us play that [he’s] not the main scribe [or director for].” He explained that this makes him “see it more from the side and play more of a producing role and more of a mentoring role, and so on [him]is exciting.”
A third season isn’t greenlit, however The last of us will span “several seasons”.
As it was reported earlier this weekthe events of The Last of Us: Part II, covering many more characters and events than the first game, is expected to take place over multiple seasons. Druckmann explained that this does not confirm that a third season has been greenlit, but that the process of adapting this much larger story, which he believes will take into account possible changes based on what will improve the story for television. He added that he and series co-creator Craig Mazin have an idea of how long it will take, but that Part II‘s adaptation is still a very early concept.
Continue reading: The last of us Season Two: Everything We Know
Druckmann also responded to questions from Greg Miller regarding the existence of a specific song The Last of Us: Part II, Pearl Jam’s “Future Days‘, which was published in 2013. Given the time shift in the TV series to 2003 as the year of the outbreak, this song technically cannot exist. Druckmann said they discussed whether this song could or should come out next season, but that the timeline change complicates things.
Druckmann acknowledged that “it doesn’t make any sense for Joel to know this song” and that they could say, “it’s a parallel dimension and the song came out earlier […] but that feels a bit like cheating.”
So while no decision has been made, the presence and impact of Future Days for Season 2 is being discussed. For my part, I would nominate Joel, the Metallica’s “St Wrath‘ as it both came out in 2003 and was obviously playing in his head as he rampaged through this hospital. Play the song above this scene and tell me I’m wrong.
