The Last of Us Part 3 Is Now in Doubt, Says Neil Druckmann

Naughty Dog director Neil Druckmann has surprisingly shot down the possibility that The Last of Us Part 3 will one day come about. A little over a year ago, Druckmann said that he and those at Naughty Dog had finally landed on the story idea for a third Last of Us game. As a result, fans naturally assumed that this would end up becoming Naughty Dog’s next project, which was eventually proven to be incorrect after the studio announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet to close out 2024. While it seemed likely that Intergalactic would only serve as a stopgap between The Last of Us Part 2 and The Last of Us Part 3, Druckmann now says that the ongoing TV adaptation may end up being the end of the franchise.

In a new interview with Variety, Druckmann was asked directly about the potential for The Last of Us Part 3. Druckmann said that he anticipated this topic would come up and plainly said that The Last of Us TV show might represent all that’s left of the series. Further info on this front wasn’t provided, but this represents a stark change in tone compared to when Druckmann last discussed a new entry.

“I was waiting for this question,” Druckmann said of The Last of Us Part 3. “I guess the only thing I would say is don’t bet on there being more of Last of Us. This could be it.”

In some sense, it’s not that shocking that Druckmann is casting doubt on The Last of Us Part 3 happening. Even if a new Last of Us game were to enter development today, it likely wouldn’t see the light of day until 2030 at the absolute earliest. Naturally, it can then be assumed that HBO would then want to adapt the game for TV, which would take up even more of Druckmann’s time. When all is said and done, The Last of Us would then account for almost 30 years of Druckmann’s career. As a result, perhaps he’s more interested in exploring other avenues, like with Intergalactic, instead of continuing to solely work on The Last of Us.

There’s also the chance that Druckmann and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin could use the TV series to tell the story that has been decided upon for The Last of Us Part 3. This approach would be similar to what HBO did with Game of Thrones as the TV show eventually surpassed the story that had been seen in the book series up until that point. Still, this decision with Game of Thrones proved to be divisive with fans and Druckmann himself has previously said that he and Mazin wouldn’t opt to do the same thing with The Last of Us. There’s always the chance that this decision could change in the years ahead, though, especially if Naughty Dog opts to not ever create another Last of Us game.

For now, all we know with certainty is that Season 2 of The Last of Us is set to hit HBO and Max on April 13th. Currently, HBO has suggested that The Last of Us will last for four seasons in total before coming to an end.