After lead writer on Uncharted 4: A Theif’s End Josh Scherr slipped up during a livestream last week, creative director Neil Druckmann has offered new insight into the status of a sequel to 2013’s The Last of Us.
In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Druckmann referenced comments from actor Nolan North earlier this year where he had said developer Naughty Dog was definitely working on a sequel to The Last of Us.
"I can say that was kind of a surprise for us for him to say that," Druckmann said. "I was like 'Oh he knows more than we know [about] what we're doing next.' We joked about it afterwards during shoots and stuff."
"The answer is – and this is totally honest, and I've said this in the past – that when [co-director of Uncharted 4] Bruce [Straley] and I moved over to Uncharted 4, we were brainstorming ideas for The Last Of Us 2 with new 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 and Straley were asked to helm Uncharted 4 after Uncharted writer and creative director Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog last year. At the time of her departure, IGN reported that Hennig was “forced out” of her job, though Naughty Dog presidents Christoph Balestra and Evan Wells denied those claims.
While he and a small team had been working on prototypes for a sequel to The Last of Us, his being entrenched in Uncharted 4 has left him unclear on what he will be working on next.
"You know, there's a part of me that's really looking forward to going back to those [prototypes for The Last of Us 2], but I have no cycles left in my mind even to be thinking about that right now!" he said. "So, I guess [North] was kind of right in that we were working on stuff, but we don't know what we're doing next and we won't know until probably a few months after we finish Uncharted 4."
Uncharted 4 will be available March 18, 2016 exclusively on PlayStation 4.
Source: Official PlayStation Magazine (via Games Radar)
