The Last Of Us Part 3 quietly teased at long last

I admire those of you who are content to treat The Last of Us Part II as the series’ conclusion.

Personally, I’ve always felt that there’s one chapter left to unfold.

Ellie has the time to explore what her immunity means now that she isn’t consumed by ideas of revenge, and I don’t think it's a coincidence that Abby has reunited with the fireflies.

I’m not going to attempt to predict a possible plot, but I do feel like their paths could cross once more.

While there’s no saying whether Abby will feature in a potential third game, it does seem that one is coming.

Neil Druckmann has been very coy about the whole affair.

He’s flitted between ‘I have an idea’ and ‘don’t expect a third game’ more times than I can count.

Honestly, I think he’s just been trying to deflect the question whilst he’s been promoting The Last of Us’ second season, especially as he’s likely more eager for people to ask him about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog’s new IP.

Druckmann has finally relented though, opening up about a possible Part III.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet looks great.

I need to begin by providing some context; in early 2024, Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II finally dropped.

Druckmann had this to say: “For years now, I haven't been able to find that concept, but recently, that's changed, and I don't have a story, but I do have that concept that to me is as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there's probably one more chapter to this story."

It’s for this reason that fans have been so confused about his doubtfulness over the existence of the potential third game ever since.

Well, appearing on the Sacred Symbols podcast, Druckmann finally elaborated on exactly when he meant in Grounded II.

“I meant what I said in the documentary. While I’m the caretaker of this franchise, it’s important that everything is of high quality. I don’t want to just make a lot of it. I want to be very thoughtful about everything we make,” he began (via ComicBook).

“When we made a theme park thing, we teamed up with Universal and the best people to do that Halloween haunted house [attraction]. When we did the show, we teamed up with I feel with the best TV makers with HBO and we’re making the best version of that.”

He concluded, “If we were ever to come back to it, I want to make sure it’s a story worthy of The Last of Us. I love that world, I love these characters, with the right opportunity, with the right idea, yeah, I would totally jump at it.”

We know that Naughty Dog is working on Intergalactic and a secondary project led by Shaun Escayg.

I wouldn’t be surprised if when those two products shipped, The Last of Us Part III took priority, but we’ll see.