WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.
Despite earning over 500 Game of The Year awards, The Last of Us games have become somewhat of a lightning rod in the industry. While the original is regarded by most as a modern classic, The Last of Us Part II created a staggering divide among fans. All that being said, the games have offered some of the most captivating storytelling in the medium in recent years. That story is not yet complete.
The first game did not particularly lend itself to a sequel, whereas Part II leaves the door open just enough for a third and final game. Not only do the characters of Ellie, Abby, Lev, Dina and others offer myriad potential plot threads, but the themes of the first two games; loss, grief, empathy, remain a universal and rich source for exploration.
That is not to say that The Last of Us should get a third game just because of the success of the first two. Rather, the narrative built by developers Naughty Dog still has more to reveal and address. In fact, game director Neil Druckmann recently stated that he and co-writer Halley Gross have developed an outline for a Part III story.
At the end of Part II, Ellie is alone and broken. Her revenge against Abby that had fueled her also burned down the life she'd built with Dina and baby JJ. Her mutilated fingers mean she cannot even play the guitar anymore; her last tangible connection to Joel. The final shot of the game is Ellie wandering out into the wilderness, having left the guitar Joel gifted her behind. Many have speculated she is setting out to find Dina and JJ, though the symbolism is clear. Ellie is leaving behind the grief for Joel that caused her to seek out so much bloodshed.
Ellie, a character adored by fans across the world, surely deserves a shot at redemption with Dina, who left when Ellie decided to go after Abby. A third game could follow this journey and their potential reconciliation. Another key moment from Part II is when Ellie, having discovered how Joel prevented the Fireflies from extracting a potential cure to the Cordyceps Virus from her, confronts him about his actions. Having killed the doctor, Abby's father, who would have performed the surgery, it's assumed that Joel destroyed any chance of a vaccine.
Still, plenty of fans have questioned whether this was the only doctor still left who could perform this surgery. A third game in the franchise could present another opportunity for Ellie to sacrifice herself to produce a cure. However, now having a life with Dina and JJ, she may not be as willing to lay her life down as she once was. The story could focus on Ellie's internal struggle with this.
Then, of course, there is Abby. There are few characters in gaming history who have caused as much controversy as her, though she remains a fascinating part of The Last of Us. Part II implies that she and Lev, the former Seraphite Abby saves during the game, have made it to a Firefly base on Catalina Island. Having been hollowed out by her revenge killing of Joel and then subsequently finding purpose again alongside Lev, Abby has moved on from the Washington Liberation Front. A new journey with the Fireflies would be a complex one.
What a third game should not try to do is appease those fans who were so opposed to the decisions of Part II. This would not be an attempt to win those people back over, but rather to explore the weighty topics of this world further and continue to contextualize the actions of Ellie and Abby. While The Last of Us Part III has not been confirmed, the stories of these games deserve a trilogy installment. The world Naughty Dog has built along with the characters which inhabit it will always be worth the time, and it doesn't seem like their stories are truly complete yet.
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