The Last Of Us Director Says He Doesn’t Have The Confidence To Plan Sequels

The Last of Us Part 2 is widely considered one of the best sequels ever made. Somehow, Naughty Dog managed to top the gameplay, narrative, and character development from the first game to give us a heartwrenching sequel – a sequel so popular that it inspired an HBO show that is topping its own charts.

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The Last of Us was a self-contained story, which didn’t leave much room for a sequel, but the team still managed to pull it off, and get a great reception as well. So, you might be a bit confused when Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann says he doesn’t have the confidence to plan for sequels.

Neil Druckmann Says He Doesn’t Have The Confidence To Plan Sequels

Speaking to Sony Santa Monica’s Cory Barlog about a lot of things at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Druckmann was asked how he approaches character development over multiple games (thanks, IGN). In a surprising answer, considering TLOU2, Druckmann said that he doesn’t really think about sequels while making a game.

“That’s a very easy question for me to answer, because I never think about multiple games, because I’m the game in front of us is so all consuming,” he responded.

“I think you’re jinxing yourself if you’re starting to think about the sequel when you’re working on the first game. So when I was making The Last of Us 2, yeah, sure. Every once in a while, an idea pops in your head of where it might go if we get the chance to do another one. But I just approach it as, ‘what if I never get to do another one?’…I’m not saving some idea for the future. If there’s a cool idea, I’m doing my best to get it into here.”

TLOU 2 features a hard-hitting scene (hehe) where a major character gets written off. So it makes sense when the director continued saying, “If I feel like the answer is, they can’t go anywhere, then I go, ‘I think we’ll just kill them off.’”

After hearing Barlog’s take on the question, saying he works in the exact opposite way, Druckmann replied, “I think for me that requires a level of confidence I just don’t have,” Druckmann later responded. “Like this is going to be so successful, I know where this is going next. I’m like, I just want to focus on the next five days in front of me, let alone 10 years down the line.”

Systems

Released

June 19, 2020

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs