Neil Druckmann—known for his work on The Last of Us—has posted a couple of new images on social media while hinting that there might be more still left to come for the franchise. In his post on Instagram, Druckmann revealed some early concept art that he had made for a pitch back in 2003.
This project would revolve around a man and a girl traveling through a broken America—essentially the plot of the original The Last of Us. What makes his post interesting is a mention of “the few stops that remain on the road ahead.”
“Cleaning out the garage today and stumbled on my original sketches from 2003 for a game pitch about a man, his surrogate daughter, and a trek across a broken America,” he wrote. “Been a wild journey. Grateful for every part of it, especially the few stops that remain on the road ahead.”
It is worth noting that the concept art itself doesn’t really mean much anymore, especially since the design behind The Last of Us protagonists Joel and Ellie would see massive changes since 2003, thanks in large part to the advancements in console hardware made at the time. As for the franchise’s future, while Druckmann could simply be referring to the 2027-bound third season of HBO’s The Last of Us, the fact that he used the plural “few stops” indicates that there might be even more in the works.
While he has largely been quiet about the idea of a third The Last of Us game, Druckmann had revealed back in February 2024 that he had some ideas for a third part already in mind. At the time, he noted that he only had “a concept” for it, however, and didn’t have a full story that would fit that concept. Discussing the ending of the first two games, he questioned whether there was potential for more.
“If we never get to do it again, this is a fine ending point. That last bite of the apple, the story’s done,” he said. “The great thing about working at Naughty Dog is that we don’t have to. So it’s always like, we would love another Last of Us, but if you guys are passionate about something else, we’ll support this other thing. Very privileged position to be in. I never take that for granted.”
“I’ve been thinking about, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for now years, I haven’t been able to find that concept- but recently that’s changed. I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept, that, to me, is as exciting as 1, as exciting as 2, is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
More recently, Druckmann has been busy with Naughty Dog’s next major game—Intergalactic. While few concrete details about it have been revealed since its original announcement, Druckmann recently teased that we might see an actor from The Last of Us returning in the sci-fi game.
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