'The Last of Us 2' release date, news: Sequel to differ with the original in terms of tone and story?
"The Last of Us 2" may not be in the spotlight at the moment, but the highly anticipated sequel to the 2013 action-adventure survival horror video game is being developed by Naughty Dog.
Creative director Neil Druckmann and his co-director Bruce Straley have been brainstorming ideas about the game when they were pulled for "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End."
There is no way of knowing for sure if "The Last of Us 2" is actively in the works, but Druckmann said that in the past that unless the single-player expansion for "Uncharted 4" is complete, the sequel will not be fully the team's focus.
Speaking to Games Radar back in April, Druckmann said that they were working on samples for "different ideas within 'The Last of Us' universe."
However, he admitted that he and Straley also explored the possibilities of setting "The Last of Us 2" outside of the game's universe "without going into specific genres."
This suggests that Naughty Dog may actually be willing to change things drastically come "The Last of Us 2" in the form of new characters, a brand new genre, or a fresh story.
Last year, Druckmann said that they had ideas for a science-fiction version as well as a fantasy one and that they went so far as to build prototypes for those as well.
This presents the possibility that "The Last of Us 2" will be considerably different from the first one. This might also mark the end of "The Last of Us" protagonists Joel and Ellie's story.
Druckmann said that they were close to "narrowing the list down" when they worked on "Uncharted 4," which means that they already have a clear vision of the sequel.
However, it might be a while before fans will hear about it. With the "Uncharted 4" single-player downloadable content (DLC) still nowhere to be seen, a majority of the folks over at Naughty Dog, if not all, could still be working on it.
The fact that it will take a while to put together suggests that "The Last of Us 2" is coming soon. The rumor mills suggest a June 2018 launch, though, but there's no final word from Naughty Dog yet.
