Neil Druckmann, best known for his work as creative lead on Naughty Dog’s successful The Last of Us series, has announced he will step down from his “creative involvement” with HBO’s adaptation of the games in order to focus on his work with Naughty Dog.
In a message on social media, Druckmann says the decision to step away from the show was “difficult”, but that he wants to “transition [his] complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects”, including the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, on which Druckmann serves as writer and director.
Druckmann says that working on HBO’s The Last of Us series as a co-creator “has been a career highlight”, and that now, after the completion of series two and “before any meaningful work starts on season three”, is the “right time” to step away.
The first season of The Last of Us debuted back in early 2023, quickly earning critical acclaim for its faithfulness to the source material, as well as for the performances of leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, who play Joel and Ellie respectively.
When the second season aired earlier this year, the response from audiences, as well as some critics, was decidedly more muted. Our very own Andrew Stretch awarded the season a 7 out of 10, praising its set dressing and Pascal’s performance but criticizing “pacing issues”.
A third season of the show is on the way, and given that the second season didn’t conclude the story of The Last of Us: Part II, we can reasonably assume that the upcoming season will do so.
As for the games, as far as we know, there’s no third installment in development, although Druckmann has said before that he believes there could be “one more chapter” to the story the games tell.
Given that Naughty Dog is currently hard at work on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, however, and given the sheer amount of time games take to make these days, I wouldn’t bank on seeing a third The Last of Us game for quite some time yet.
