The Last of Us Part 3 still a possibility but Uncharted storyline is finished, reveals Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann
'We’re able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done. We’re moving on.'
Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann revealed that the studio does not feel compelled to make The Last of Us Part 3. He also revealed that the studio is moving on from the Uncharted series and will not be telling more stories from the universe of Uncharted.
The Last of Us Part 3 will only happen if there's a compelling story to tell
Druckmann told BuzzFeed that Naughty Dog will be developing The Last of Us Part 3 only if there is “a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love”. He said, “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.”
He also praised Sony, “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.”
"We're moving on", says Druckmann about Uncharted
Druckmann then mentioned Uncharted and how they believe the Uncharted story has been told and done with. “For us, Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we’re able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done. We’re moving on.”
“Likewise, with The Last of Us, it’s up to us whether we want to continue it or not,” said Naughty Dog’s co-president.
“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.”
From the looks of it, Druckmann is keeping things open-ended and perhaps rolling back on earlier statements. He told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview about the on-going TV show that “there’s more story to tell”, hinting at The Last of Us Part 3.
Before that, he also said in 2021 that a story outline for a third entry has been written but there have not been further developments at that point in time.