Troy Baker is officially set to return for the next Naughty Dog game led by Neil Druckmann - and it's starting to sound certain that the game won't be The Last of Us Part 3.
Running down Baker's upcoming projects - which include a notable role in the BioShock successor Judas - as part of a lengthy feature on Baker's career, GQ reports that "he will return for Druckmann’s new project at Naughty Dog." The magazine quotes Druckmann as saying, "In a heartbeat, I would always work with Troy."
Baker is a prolific voice and motion capture actor, and has appeared multiple times in Naughty Dog's Uncharted series as Nathan Drake's brother Sam. But his most notable role is probably Joel Miller in The Last of Us - and here's where a spoiler warning has to come in for those of you who've managed to dodge the spoilers for Part 2 over the past several years. Suffice to say, Joel is in no condition to return for a third entry in the series.
Naughty Dog has yet to confirm what its next project will be, but Druckmann has noted that they "will not be The Last of Us studio forever" - while also teasing that "there's probably one more chapter" to The Last of Us's story. Still, the only ways Joel might come back are in flashback, via time travel, or through a mustache-twirling evil twin. Only one of those is likely, but a Joel cameo isn't the kind of thing to get casually announced in an actor profile like this.
No, I'd venture to guess that Baker's likely involved in some other Naughty Dog project as a different character entirely. Another Uncharted game featuring Sam Drake is certainly on the table, as is - perhaps more interestingly - an entirely new series with all-new characters. Or heck, maybe Naughty Dog will go back to its platformer roots and put Baker in for some hyper-big-budget Jak and Daxter reboot.
