Naughty Dog Reveals Why The Last of Us 2 Almost Got Cancelled


After the massive success of The Last of Us, it seemed like a sequel was inevitable. Well, it almost didn’t happen. Here’s why…

The team behind The Last of Us wanted to make sure there was a good reason to re-visit this story, and so it’s reminiscent of the whole Bioshock 2 situation. After the success of Bioshock, Ken Levine and his team didn’t want to return to Rapture for more of the same, so they declined to work on it and Bioshock 2 was handled by a different team. Eventually, when Ken and company did have some new ideas for a fresh take on the Bioshock world, they got back together and created Bioshock Infinite. They wanted to wait until they really had some new ideas to explore, rather than just trying to cash in on the name.

image: playstation blog
image: playstation blog

The reason The Last of Us Part II almost didn’t happen is very similar, they just couldn’t think of anything “special” enough to justify revisiting the story yet. Thankfully, they were able to take their time and to put together something that would meet their criteria of being worthwhile.

Now that it has been announced, on their terms, we as fans have a lot to look forward to. Naughty Dog is making The Last of Us Part 2 becasue there’s more story to tell, instead of just for the sake of adding a “2” to the title to ship a few more million units.

Neil Druckmann, who is the Creative Director at Naughty Dog, said:

image: gamespresso
image: gamespresso

“Like many of you, we have a deep love for the world of The Last of Us and its characters, and while a sequel may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, that wasn’t the case. We knew that it needed to be a story worth telling and, perhaps more importantly, a story worthy of Joel and Ellie,”

“After spending years on different ideas (and almost giving up), we finally uncovered a story that felt special—a story that evolved into an epic journey.”

last-of-us-2-ellie

We’re still a ways out from the release date, nothing has been set in stone yet and Druckmann has stated that it won’t be anytime soon, we can still look forward to more information in the coming months, we’ll keep you posted as it breaks.