> Well, I’m not watching anything, so… Dr. Uckmann’s next game is THE LAST OF US PART III which is currently in production at Naughty Dog. > > @ViewerAnon on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ViewerAnon/status/1602812234815574016) This rumor hit the web last night and was quickly shared with me. This isn’t terribly surprising news, if it is true. Naughty Dog has made distinct trilogies since *Crash Bandicoot* on PlayStation; often paired with some fourth adjacent game. Through the PS2 generation, those fourth titles were racing games—*Crash Team Racing* and *Jak X: Combat Racing*. This trilogy approach changed with *Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End* and a spin-off with *Uncharted: The Lost Legacy* on PlayStation 4. *The Last of Us* seemed to always have an air of finality with each of its two core entries though. While producing a third game is par for the course for Naughty Dog, the studio could break that cycle with Joel and Ellie without the story being unresolved. With the TV show just a month away and the long-awaited multiplayer game still in production, it makes sense to make a Part III. The team is in the cordyceps zone, so to speak. And since the multiplayer game will have a live service element to it, I would suspect that game will have a healthy life up through the release of the threequel. Color me excited if this pans out (which I suspect it will). *The Last of Us* iron is only getting hotter. While there is fatigue from Naughty Dog sticking with the same IP for three generations, if they have a story they find compelling and the drive to bring to life, I have faith in the team to create another engaging story that is told [[Chasing the Stick – The History of Naughty Dog|on the stick]].