[How ‘The Last of Us’ Plans to Bring the Zombie Genre Back to Life](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/the-last-of-us-hbo-pedro-pascal-bella-ramsey-interview-1235290103/) by James Hibberd for The Hollywood Reporter via Tom Ivan at [Video Games Chronicle](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/last-of-us-director-on-a-potential-part-3-i-think-theres-more-story-to-tell/) > As for this show’s ending, expect the debut season to cover the entirety of the Last of Us game. Druckmann and Mazin hint — but don’t outright say — that their second season will cover the table-flipping narrative of Naughty Dog’s bold Part II sequel (“I don’t like filler,” Mazin says). Part II cannot be described without spoilers, but it caused such an uproar that Druckmann received death threats. > > Likewise, Druckmann cannot reveal whether a rumored Part III game from Naughty Dog is coming, but says: “I think there’s more story to tell.” Either way, Druckmann isn’t worried about falling into the same trap faced by Game of Thrones, when the HBO drama famously surpassed author George R.R. Martin’s source material. “We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games,” he says. “We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.” This sounds [[Chasing the Stick - The History of Naughty Dog during the PS4 Era|familiar]]. > After the release of Left Behind, Druckmann and Straley had a brief opportunity to kick around new ideas. One of these was a sequel to The Last of Us. Druckmann had actually pitched the idea for the sequel to Ashley Johnson, the actress who plays Ellie, when pitching the story of Left Behind, which presumably happened back in 2013. By the time Left Behind was done, Druckmann claimed it was a “50/50” shot that there would be a sequel during a reddit AMA. > > In an interview with Laura Hudson for Wired that focused on Left Behind, Druckmann was more open about the ideas floating around in his head for a potential sequel. This interview was published on February 18, 2014, just four days after Left Behind released. > > “I still have this script written, this story about Ellie’s mom (for) an animated short we were going to do, but it fell through. I’d love for that to see the light of day sometime, maybe as a DLC or a comic book,” Druckmann said. “We’re brainstorming the next (Naughty Dog) project right now; some of the ideas are sequel ideas and some are brand-new IP. We’re just trying to see where our passions lie. Is there more to do here (in The Last of Us) both on a mechanical level or a narrative level, so we’re not repeating ourselves? Or is it (sic) this a good point to say goodbye to the characters in this world? It’s a very heavy decision, because whichever direction we go in commits us for the next three to four years. So we’re going to take several weeks to make that decision.” I have no doubts that *[[The Last of Us Part III Rumored to be in Production|The Last of Us Part III]]* is in the works [[Naughty Dog’s Next Game has a Writer’s Room|at Naughty Dog]].