The Last of Us studio may make Part 3 if there’s a “compelling story”

The Last of Us is HBO’s newest hit show, but gamers have known for quite a while how special this story is. Naughty Dog’s 2013 video game The Last of Us is a thought-provoking exploration of how love can manifest in powerful and terrible ways, all set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic United States infested with fungal zombies. It’s a testament to how good the story is that HBO is pulling a lot of things straight from the games for its adaptation.

The Last of Us showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (who also wrote the game) have stressed that they’re not intending to go past the events established in Naughty Dog’s series, which currently consists of The Last of Us and the The Last of Us Part 2. Since The Last of Us season 1 is set to cover the entirety of the first game, that means we could hope for one or two more seasons of the show at best, since The Last of Us Part 2 is a somewhat denser and more complex affair.

But is there any hope for The Last of Us Part 3, which could pave the way for future seasons? According to Druckmann, it depends.

The Last of Us multiplayer game is on the way, and Part 3 isn’t off the table

These latest soundbites come from a recent interview with Buzzfeed. Druckmann confirmed that Naughty Dog is “moving on” from its Indiana Jones-esque action adventure series Uncharted, while talking about how The Last of Us is expanding as a franchise.

For one, Naughty Dog is making a Last of Us multiplayer game, which has been in development since before The Last of Us Part 2 launched and is expected to be properly revealed at some point this year. The other way the franchise could expand is with The Last of Us Part 3. Here’s what Druckmann had to say:

"We’ve been pretty open that the next Last of Us game is going to be this multiplayer experience, where you’ll be able to enter the world of The Last of Us with your friend and get to experience the tension and the brutality of that world — and a brand new story and cast of characters that live in another city that we haven’t seen yet in the world of The Last of Us. This is going to be another chapter in the universe of The Last of Us.Beyond that, 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. 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. 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. 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."

Here’s hoping Druckmann and the rest of the crew at Naughty Dog crack the story for The Last of Us Part 3. If there’s anything the show is proving, it’s that there’s still an enormous appetite for stories set in this world.

Either way, there’s still plenty of adventuring with Joel and Ellie ahead on the TV series. The Last of Us premieres new episodes on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. CT.

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h/t Eurogamer