Neil Druckmann recently hinted that Naughty Dog’s next project, which would indeed be The Last of Us 3, will completely change the studio’s approach to licensing.
The critical and commercial success of the license and the upcoming arrival of an HBO series leads us to imagine that Sony is not going to stop there. Several serious rumors evoke the start of construction of a The Last of Us 3 and Neil Druckmann could have given a clue about it. The next episode of the saga could be very different from the others in its structure.
A very different take on The Last of Us 3
Naughty Dog is already looking at The Last of Us 3. If the second episode and the misadventures of Joel, Ellie and Abby could have served as a conclusion to the saga, the Californian studio has other stories to tell. In April 2021, Neil Druckmann, vice-president of creation and co-director of the franchise, said that the screenplay for this third installment had already begun to be written. With the upcoming release of the TLOU series by HBO, the one considered the thinking head of The Last of Us is making new confidences about his next project.
In an interview with The Newyorker, Druckmann claims that The Last of Us 3, if indeed his next game, would be structured differently from other studio productions. ” My next game will be more structured as a TV series than any other Naughty Dog game “, did he declare. The creative had already taken a first step in this direction with TLOU 2 thanks to the arrival of Halley Gross, known for her work on Westworld, who had co-written the sequel. A collaboration that visibly changed Druckmann’s approach to writing games itself. For The Last of Us 3, he will push the approach even further by surrounding himself for the first time with a complete team of screenwriters. It will therefore be based on these famous “writers room”, where several authors oversee the characters, the story and the narrative arcs.
An approach that betrays an even more exponential narrative ambition. It must be said that the series The Last of Us from HBO will bring a whole new audience, but also new elements to the story to deepen certain characters. Neil Druckmann saw in this adaptation an opportunity to bring cut content.
