The Last of Us continues to be wildly popular, but when making the first game in the series, creative director Neil Druckmann wanted to make sure that the "story could stand on its own" without a sequel, because "I wasn't sure they would ever let me direct a game again."
Speaking to Game Informer in an interview about the upcoming second season of The Last of Us TV show, Druckmann is asked what the greatest challenge was when it came to moving to The Last of Us Part 2 after the first game. It sounds like it all came down to the fact that it didn't really need a sequel in the first place, as he explains: "When we made Part 1 [the game], it was purposefully designed because part of it was that I wasn't sure they would ever let me direct a game again. But I wanted to do something that was complete, had a beginning, middle, and end, and if I never got to do it again, then the story could stand on its own."
That didn't mean a sequel couldn't happen, of course, because it did, but in order "to justify" it being made, Druckmann and the team had to "find a concept that could continue the themes of the first game and continue the journey with those characters, but make it a story that could stand on its own and also, with the two together, enrich each other."
He reiterates that, in a "kind of similar" situation to the development of the first game, the team was "not sure we could ever do it again," so in the moment, Naughty Dog focused on ensuring it "has a definitive ending, but in a lot of ways, mirrors a lot of the stuff that happens in the first game." It sounds like this might have been for the best, because in another recent interview with Variety, Druckmann said: "Don't bet on there being more of Last of Us. This could be it."
Druckmann's latest comments to Game Informer also tie into something he said at last month's D.I.C.E. Summit, when he admitted that he doesn't have the "confidence" to plan for sequels, and doesn't want to save up ideas to use in the future. Instead, he'd rather try to get his ideas into whatever game he's already working on. "You're jinxing yourself if you're starting to think about the sequel when you're working on the first game," he believes.
The Last of Us "became the brand name for quality and storytelling within games" says Joel actor Troy Baker: "It became like the fridge."
