The Last of Us concept art isn’t a sequel, says artist: ‘Just fan art’

Naughty Dog is up to its mysterious ways. Following yesterday's tweet from Bruce Straley in which the game director for The Last of Us made note of "goosebumps" he'd gotten from playing and talking through a prototype that a designer was sketching, we now have evidence of said sketch. And it appears to be related to The Last of Us.

Marek Okon, a freelance concept artist that has worked on several pieces of artwork for the game, posted new work in progress artwork that appears to be a slightly older version of Ellie holding a guitar. "Let me tease you something… Its coming… ;]" he posted alongside the artwork.

What's coming — a sequel to The Last of Us? It certainly looks that way, though Naughty Dog would never confirm it ahead of E3. 

For his part, Okon did respond to the numerous rumors the artwork sparked. "Lol. This is how you know you are teasing your stuff the right way," he added. "So before its gonna get blown out of proportions – its gonna be strictly personal image."

"Is it about TLOU2? Not really… Maybe… Its classified ;P… But seriously its gonna be just a fan art ;]"

So while it appears that this image in particular is just fan art, there's no doubt that Naughty Dog is up to something. Whether or not it's a sequel to The Last of Us remains to be seen.

Of course, Naughty Dog has addressed the possibility of a sequel and whether or not The Last of Us actually needs one. In February, Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann told Eurogamer that the studio was brainstorming a bunch of things — including a sequel and a brand new IP. It seems that if Naughty Dog were to make a sequel for The Last of Us, it would have to be "a story that's really worth telling, and that's not repeating itself."

Do you want a sequel to The Last of Us?