‘The Last Of Us 2’: Naughty Dog Now Developing The Survival Game Sequel?


Now that the final installment of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series has been available for a little over two weeks, there has been increased speculation that the gaming studio has begun working on the sequel to 2013’s smash hit, The Last of Us.

There was what some are calling a teaser for The Last of Us 2 in the epilogue of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The supposed teaser can be found in Cassie’s – the daughter of Nate and Elena – bedroom after you finish playing Crash Bandicoot for the second time, as there’s a poster in the back of the room that shows a pregnant woman in a gas mask, and the poster is for something called The Last of Us: American Daughters. You can check out the poster below.

Ellie The Last of Us
[Image via Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment]
Most people are speculating that Naughty Dog was hinting that we’ll be seeing a pregnant Ellie in The Last of Us 2. There’s also been some speculation that TLOU 2 will be a prequel, and the pregnant woman in the poster is actually Ellie’s mother.

There have been a lot more theories about the plot of The Last of Us 2, the most popular of which is that the sequel won’t feature Joel or Ellie, and that we’ll be introduced to brand new main-characters. If that’s the case, Naughty Dog may disappoint the majority of the people who were fans of the first game. But, with that said, TLOU 2 will still be a massive game.

Rumor has it that Naughty Dog will officially announce the development of The Last of Us 2 at this June’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The timing makes sense, but we’re only a few weeks away from the event, and, so far, there hasn’t even been a hint that it’ll be announced. So, if it’s announced at E3, it’ll be a complete surprise, unless something changes in the next couple of weeks.

Whether or not Naughty Dog announces the game at E3 is irrelevant, though, because there will be a sequel. Neil Druckmann has admitted to working on the prototypes for The Last of Us 2 in an interview with PlayStation Magazine. But, his work on TLOU 2 prototypes was halted when he was asked to begin working on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

“When Bruce Straley and I moved over to Uncharted 4, we were brainstorming ideas for The Last Of Us 2. We were brainstorming new main characters; ideas for TLOU 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one of those ideas. And just as we were getting close to settling or narrowing that list down, we were asked to work on Uncharted 4.”

Druckmann has also said that he plans to resurrect those prototypes after Naughty Dog has finished working on Uncharted 4’s single-player downloadable content. So, the Naughty Dog team is planning on getting back to work on TLOU 2 at some point.

One thing is for sure, and that’s that Naughty Dog didn’t put the American Daughters poster in the epilogue for no reason.

When Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which was released prior to The Last of Us, came out, there was a teaser for The Last of Us in the game’s opening scene. If you look around the bar in Uncharted 3, you’ll find a newspaper with the headline “scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus.”

[Image via Naughty Dog / Sony Computer Entertainment]
[Image via Naughty Dog / Sony Computer Entertainment]
Is Naughty Dog currently working on The Last of Us 2? No one knows for sure. But, all of the evidence suggests that they are, and that it’ll be announced at either this year’s or next year’s E3 event.

[Image via Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment]

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