A former Naughty Dog developer claims that co-director Neil Druckmann has plans for an entire group of immune survivors in The Last of Us universe.
The Last of Us Part 3 is by no means in development, as far as we know, but that hasn't stopped fans from wildly speculating about the shroomified series and developers from slyly teasing a continuation. Enter former Naughty Dog lighting artist, Gabriel Betancourt, a developer who's just spilled the beans on what a theoretical third part might look like.
Speaking to Kiwi Talkz, Betancourt recalls a conversation that he apparently had with Neil Druckmann about Ellie's immunity to the fungal virus that turns seemingly everyone else into a flesh-eating monster. In that conversation, Druckmann allegedly revealed that "several people are immune" and "there's a whole congregation of that kind of person."
Betancourt also remembers Druckmann saying, "What I want to do is I want to tell a more sophistication story" with "multiple characters and kind of expand on that."
Ellie's immunity is obviously integral to The Last of Us. The entire first game is all about escorting her to the Fireflies to potentially invent a cure, but more than that, her possibly being the only person immune to the cordyceps is what fuels most of the story's drama - it's what makes Joel's decision at the end so divisive, it's what informs her guilt and complicates her grief in the sequel.
As Betancourt mentions, adding a group of other immune survivors might take away from the "gravity" of both The Last of Us games, even if it doesn't absolve Joel since, you know, he doesn't know this group actually exists. He's just hoping they do.
And, of course, it's entirely possible Druckmann's plans have changed in the years since Betancourt's departure from the studio since that storyline invites so many questions, like, how would a group of immune people even be able to find each other? Maybe it all goes back to the Fireflies again, who were teased at the end of the second game, but we won't know until The Last of Us Part 3 maybe, eventually, becomes a reality.
Speaking of which, a former Naughty Dog lead recently hinted the developer's been making a secret game for the last three years, hot off the heels of Druckmann vagueposting about the franchise.
