Summary
It’s great thatThe Last of Ushas received so much newfound success with its live-action HBO adaptation because, sinceThe Last of Us Part 2, there haven’t been many reasons for anyone to get tremendously excited about the franchise’s future otherwise. It wasn’t until recently that a thirdLast of Usgame was even explicitly referenced in any official capacity thanks to the sequel’s behind-the-scenes documentary, and thecancelation ofThe Last of Us’ online gamewas a huge hit for the series as that would’ve presumably been a big way for it to thrive beyond the only two installments it’s treated players to thus far.
Therefore, it’s looking fairly dire forThe Last of Us’ future and aPart 3wouldn’t be able to solve every issue it’s compounded up until this point. APart 3will be highly anticipated due to the controversial entry it’ll be following and it only seemed natural that Naughty Dog would take that leap with its HBO show and recurring popularity nudging it along. Nonetheless, Neil Druckmann stating that Naughty Dog won’t reductively be the ‘Last of Us’ studio for long implies that there may not be much more for it to give the franchise beyond Ellie’s narrative, which would be disheartening due to its potential single-player avenues.
The Last of Us is Too Reliant on Joel and Ellie’s Iconography
An argument could be made thatThe Last of Uswouldn’t be nearly as impactful or profound without Joel and Ellie. However, if this was true, it’d make sense that Naughty Dog should be able to craft new characters with equally touching and empathetic stories as it did with its seminal father-daughter surrogates. Abby should’ve been an exercise in Naughty Dog introducing a new protagonist, for example, but even though her motivations are completely tenable inThe Last of Us Part 2there are still tons of players who despise Abby for killing Joel.
Unfortunately, becauseThe Last of Ushas chosen to narrow its rich lore and distill it entirely around Joel and Ellie’s relationship, Naughty Dog won’t ever have an easy time cleaving them from the story and any new protagonists debuted will be met with a harsh comparative criticism that will probably be unfounded and unrealistic. Even if a new protagonist wasn’t introduced by murdering a beloved character, there are undoubtedly players who’d wish they were playing as Ellie, let aloneJoel in a prequel game.
The reason why this is most disappointing is because, if Naughty Dog also believes it can’t let go of Joel and Ellie in the genetic makeup of itsLast of Usgames, there’s no chance that the franchise continues once they’re both written out of it.
The Last of Us is Denying Itself Diverse World-Building
Given how popular and successfulThe Last of Usis, there’s a low likelihood that Naughty Dog shelves the IP after a third game. The notion ofaPart 3being “one more chapter”infers that the plan would be to call it quits thereafter, though, and a statement that definitive wouldn’t have been made lackadaisically unless Naughty Dog has other surprises in store.
Perhaps this comment was made with regard to there being “one more chapter” in Ellie’s story specifically, while other characters have their own stories forThe Last of Usto center on afterward. Otherwise, it’s possible that whatever Naughty Dog’s multiple in-development games are may take precedence and could be drawing its attention toward new IPs fully instead.
Putting distance between it andThe Last of Uscould be a clever move and yet another intimate story about other characters in the game’s world could be exceptional.Naughty Dog has been brilliant about not shutting the door on future sequelsinPart 1andPart 2, so it’ll be interesting to see howPart 3concludes and whether or not it shuts the door on other possible characters being followed subsequently.
The Last Of Us Part II Remastered
WHERE TO PLAY
EXPERIENCE ELLIE AND ABBY’S EMOTIONAL JOURNEYS, REMASTERED FOR PS5 Play the winner of over 300 Game of the Year awards, remastered for the PlayStation®5 console. Relive or play for the first time Ellie and Abby’s story, now with graphical enhancements, new gameplay modes like the roguelike survival experience No Return, full DualSense® wireless controller integration, and more. Five years after their dangerous journey across the post-pandemic United States, Ellie and Joel have settled down in Jackson, Wyoming. Living amongst a thriving community of survivors has allowed them peace and stability, despite the constant threat of the infected and other, more desperate survivors. When a violent event disrupts that peace, Ellie embarks on a relentless journey to carry out justice and find closure.
