Did Neil Druckmann Just Confirm The Last of Us Part 3?

PlayStation fans believe that Naughty Dog director and co-president Neil Druckmann may have just confirmed in a roundabout way that the studio’s next game will be The Last of Us Part 3. Outside of serving as one of the lead producers on HBO’s The Last of Us TV series, Druckmann has made it clear in recent years that he’s been working on a secret new project at Naughty Dog. Previous reports have claimed that this game is indeed The Last of Us Part 3, but Druckmann and those at PlayStation have yet to verify as much. If a new message from Druckmann himself is any indication, though, it definitely seems like a third The Last of Us game is on the horizon. 

In a new post on X (formerly Twitter), Druckmann congratulated longtime collaborator and The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla on winning a Grammy award. Alongside this congratulatory message, Druckmann added that there is still “a lot more collaboration ahead” for the pair. Although this could refer to any number of projects, Santaolalla has previously only worked with Naughty Dog and Druckmann when it comes to The Last of Us. With this in mind, many think that Druckmann could be tipping his hand in a sly manner to the unannounced but much-theorized The Last of Us Part 3. 

Even though The Last of Us Part 3 is the future collaboration that most fans assume Druckmann might be referring to, it’s worth stressing that there are a few other possibilities. For starters, it’s known that Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us is set to release in the future and will certainly feature Santaolalla’s music once again. Beyond this, a multiplayer game set within the world of The Last of Us has also previously been announced by Naughty Dog. It’s not known if Santaolalla will contribute any music to this project, but given his ties to the series, it wouldn’t be shocking if he did develop some tracks for the game. 

With all of this in mind, there are no guarantees that what Druckmann is talking about in this post is associated with The Last of Us Part 3. If fans are lucky, however, perhaps they won’t have to wait much longer to see what Naughty Dog is cooking up. Given that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 just launched this past month, PlayStation doesn’t have many major exclusives on the horizon that it has unveiled. As a way of generating more excitement for the future of PlayStation, maybe we’ll see our first tease of The Last of Us Part 3 in the coming weeks or months.