Neil Druckmann may have just teased the existence of The Last of Us Part 3, contributing to our collective hopium. A social media post reminiscing about the series suggests there's still more to come in Joel and Ellie's misadventures against the Cordyceps, though to what degree is kept distinctly vague.
On Instagram, Druckmann, who co-created the franchise, shared a recently unearthed sketch for an old pitch involving a male protagonist protecting a young girl on some sort of journey across a United States that's fallen apart. Sounds familiar.
"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 says in the caption. "Been a wild journey. Grateful for every part of it, especially the few stops that remain on the road ahead."
Oh, "the few stops that remain on the road ahead," you say? That sure sounds like another sequel is in the works. Possibly more spin-offs too. It's now been six years since the release of The Last of Us Part 2, and in that time, Druckmann's been cagey about committing to another installment.
Back in May 2025, he told people not to bet on there being any more of the zombie horror saga, as Naughty Dog continued work in earnest on its next venture, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. But now, he seems to have changed his tune slightly. Although Part 2's ending is relatively neat, a third mainline game always seemed possible, because the studio favors the neatness of trilogies – Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted all got at least one – and there'll be increased demand for more narrative runway due to the TV show.
The comments are full of people interpreting this as license to get excited. "The last line is precisely why I'm never losing hope for a Part 3," says one. "That last line pretty much confirms Part 3," speculates another.
That said, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, because this is still far from any kind of real announcement. It's fun to see what the early concepts of The Last of Us looked like, as the protagonist in the first picture is sporting a vest and jeans, with a fire torch in one hand and his more youthful companion in the other. In the second, he's older with a shirt and tie, and the girl is a teen.
There's less realism, as the studio was still in the throes of the Jak games, before pivoting towards being more cinematic for Uncharted. It truly has been a long, winding path for all involved. Whatever's coming, we can be sure it'll tear our hearts open, as is how The Last of Us tends to work.
