The Last of Us Part 3: everything we know so far

By Jesse Lennox Updated December 9, 2025

The Last of Us stands as one of gaming’s most impressively told stories, but it would be fair to say that the ending was almost perfectly ambiguous.

While many doubted whether we needed The Last of Us Part 2, the TV adaptation has shown that the story feels incomplete without it, but could we get a third game in the series?

In the years since The Last of Us Part 2’s debut, we’ve seen Naughty Dog remake the first game and remaster the second, while also putting a lot of work into bringing their worlds to life with the HBO TV show, but the door is seemingly always open for more Last of Us.

Not only are the games huge critical successes and big-sellers for Sony (and now available on PC, too), but the second game again felt ambiguous in its ending.

With a multiplayer title dubbed ‘The Last of Us Online’ seemingly cancelled, it remains to be seen when we’ll get a look at The Last of Us Part 3, if at all, but if you’re curious about the fate of Ellie and Abby, we’ve got a rundown of all the info here.

While we know that The Last of Us Part 3 is at least being worked on in some capacity at Naughty Dog, we have no idea how far along it is or when we can expect to see it. At The Game Awards in December 2024, Naughty Dog announced a brand new sci-fi title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, suggesting that The Last of Us Part 3 is going to launch even later than we initially thought.

Based on the incredible level of polish and attention to detail the studio likes to put into its games, it is possible we won’t see The Last of Us Part 3 until 2027 or later.

The only thing we know for sure is that The Last of Us Part 3 will be on PlayStation platforms, specifically the PS5. Unless the game takes so long that a next-generation system comes out and the team decides not to make it cross-generational, you can feel safe knowing it will be playable on your PS5.

Since both previous games have made their way to PC, The Last of Us Part 3 likely will too. Previous games took over a year to arrive on PC, and while things may change by the time the game finally arrives, it is safe to assume PC players will wait at least a full year before it comes to that platform.

There’s not a single trailer, screenshot, or even piece of concept art for The Last of Us Part 3. All we have for now are a few words about its existence in the most high-level way.

The first real word about Naughty Dog working on single-player projects came with its statement on the cancellation of The Last of Online, in which the studio states, “We have more than one ambitious, brand new single-player game that we’re working on here at Naughty Dog, and we cannot wait to share more about what comes next when we’re ready.”

With the release of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, we also got the making-of documentary called Grounded 2. At the very end, Druckmann spoke about a possible third entry. “I’ve been thinking about, ‘Is there a concept there?’ For years, I haven’t been able to find that concept. But recently, that’s changed. I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept that, to me, is as exciting as I, as exciting as II, is its own thing, yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”

While it isn’t technically confirmed to be related to The Last of Us Part 3, Troy Baker, who played Joel in both games, had an interview with GQ mainly focused on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in which he confirms to be part of whatever Druckmann’s next game is. Technically, this could be one of the other projects the studio has said it is working on, especially since we know the fate of Joel. However, there are plenty of ways Joel, or even a new character played by Troy, could feature in a third game.

In the years since, Druckmann told ComicBook “I meant what I said in the [Grounded 2] documentary. While I’m the caretaker of this franchise, it’s important that everything is of high quality. I don’t want to just make a lot of it. I want to be very thoughtful about everything we make.”

“When we made a theme park thing, we teamed up with Universal and the best people to do that Halloween haunted house [attraction]. When we did the show, we teamed up with I feel with the best TV makers with HBO, and we’re making the best version of that.”

“If we were ever to come back to it, I want to make sure it’s a story worthy of The Last of Us. I love that world, I love these characters, with the right opportunity, with the right idea, yeah, I would totally jump at it.”

At the moment, Naughty Dog is working on its upcoming sci-fi title Intergalactic, as well as at least one other project, which is being led by Shaun Escayg. Escayg worked on the first Last of Us title, then Uncharted 4, before departing to work on the Marvel’s Avengers project at Crystal Dynamics.

Take the following with a grain of salt, but a leaker named Daniel Richtman reported on his Patreon that he has insight that The Last of Us Part 3 is not only real but already in the works. He claims the story will focus on a group of survivors hunkered down in a large Victorian house, led by a woman named Val, who is in conflict with a man named Mason, who is attempting to overthrow Val as the leader. Ezra is described as conflicted between whether they want to side with Val or Mason, and Lucas is described as having a relationship with a scavenger and may present some sort of dark turn in the story. There is also mention of a young girl named Gracie, but no other details were shared about her.

Both The Last of Us games follow a similar stealth-action style of gameplay with limited resources and light horror elements. We suspect the third game to at least use this same base, but include new weapons, enemies, and mechanics in the same way the sequel evolved over the first.

The Last of Us Part 3 hasn’t been announced. It could be a long time before we see it, so preorders are still a long way away.