Given the success of “The Last of Us” series on HBO, and the conclusion of “The Last of Us 2,” fans are desperate to know whether there will ever be another game. Naughty Dog has enjoyed a massive amount of success with their exclusive titles, and Neil Druckmann may have just hinted at a third installment.
Gustavo Santaolalla just recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys. Druckmann sent a congratulatory tweet, and added “we have a lot more collaboration ahead of us!.” So of course, fans are taking that as a not-so-subtle hint that “The Last of Us 3” is being worked on. Druckmann made it clear he’s been working on a secret project for the past several years, leaving most to assume the story of Ellie is not yet done. While Druckmann could be referring to any number of projects, Santaolalla’s haunting and beautiful compositions have only ever been used for “The Last of Us.”
Naughty Dog seems to enjoy working in threes or fours. As evidenced by “Jak and Daxter” and “Uncharted.” So it wouldn’t be all that surprising should a third installment for “The Last of Us” be in the works. But what should come next for Ellie should that be the case? “The Last of Us 2” leaned hard into the poisonousness of revenge. And that the risk of chasing down your enemy might not be worth the reward.
So how far down the line might a third game be? Will the world be more healed? Will the cordyceps virus have become more normalized, with society on its way to healing? Or will there be an even greyer, more hopeless situation ahead? And where would Ellie’s story head now? As an older, jaded woman, would she parallel Joel? Find herself in his position and taking a young girl or boy under their wing? Come full circle? Perhaps.
