"Don't bet on there being more of Last of Us": Asked about The Last of Us 3, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann says "this could be it"

Don't bet on The Last of Us Part 3 ever happening, says Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann.

It's been a lingering question whether Naughty Dog would follow-up 2020's acclaimed The Last of Us Part 2 with another sequel, and in an interview with Variety, Druckmann gave us our clearest answer yet: no, probably not.

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

With HBO's The Last of Us season 2 on the way, and the TV show's plot being a direct adaptation of the games, I'll be careful not to spoil anything, but let's just say the sequel ended fairly definitively. There aren't a whole lot of loose ends to tie up, so if there was a Last of Us Part 3, it would likely have to introduce some new plot element rather than just follow up on existing narrative threads.

The first season of HBO's TV series was a fairly direct adaptation of the first Last of Us game, but it sounds like the second season will be different. We've known for some time that there would be more than two seasons of the show, and talking to Variety, Druckmann's co-showrunner Craig Mazin said he's still not sure how long it'll go.

"It feels like we’ve got one or two more seasons," Mazin said. "It's getting harder to make, because every episode gets big. You don't want to wait four years for a 17-episode finish, or whatever it is."

Neil Druckmann says The Last of Us season 2 will incorporate "pretty brutal" deleted material from The Last of Us 2: "I'm very excited for people to see it."