The Last of Us Part II Writer Neil Druckmann Will Not Avoid Personal Politics or Issues
Like its predecessor, The Last of Us Part II will include “personal politics”: issues such as morality, ethics, and diversity. These topics earned Naughty Dog high praise for The Last of Us as its themes contributed to the nuanced and masterful storytelling that defined the first game of the franchise.
However, not all fans appreciated the themes that elevated The Last of Us to such artistic heights. In a now-deleted tweet, a fan told director Neil Druckmann that while The Last of Us was his “favourite game of all time”, he wanted Druckmann to keep his “personal politics out of Part 2”.
Druckmann’s response:
No can do. Writers work off of their views of the world. For example, the ending of TLoU is very much inspired by my “personal politics.” https://t.co/nuhF318yxj
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) January 23, 2017
Personal politics has always been an integral part of The Last of Us as it handles conflicts such as self-preservation vs. the greater good and ethics in medicine, and features thoughtful depictions of racially diverse and LGBTQ characters. Fellow Naughty Dog employee Drew Thalmer linked an article written by Stan Lee, which brought to light the fact that many of his readers thought his comics were too “moralizing” and that they were to be “escapist reading and nothing more.” As Lee said: “a story without a message … is like a man without a soul.”