Fans think Naughty Dog left a clue about its next project in The Last of Us Part 1
Crouching tiger, hidden dragon...
The Last of Us Part 1 only released a few days ago for the PlayStation 5, but fans are already dissecting, and by extension discussing, every inch of its world.
One such discussion taking place focuses on a potential new IP from Naughty Dog, that many believe will have a fantasy theme. This all started after several posters with fantasy-like elements were spotted adorning the game's walls.
The posters in question, which can be seen below, show images of a Pegasus-like horse, a dragon, and a female warrior:
It's not much, but enough to get tongues wagging about what the future may hold for the Last of Us' developer.
"A Naughty Dog fantasy game on PS5 is such a dream. Inject that right into my veins baby," wrote one enthusiastic follower on seeing these images.
"Open world fantasy game (something like Witcher 3) from ND?? That would be [a] dream come true," added another.
Over on Reddit, some pointed out that The Last of Us was similarly teased in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, so a move such as this is not unusual for Naughty Dog.
Fans previously speculated that Naughty Dog's future projects could have a fantasy theme to them after the team's senior concept artist Hyoung Nam uploaded three new pieces of work to their ArtStation account in early 2021.
This series was titled "The Women of North", with the first of these images showing a warrior, sitting atop a slain dragon.
However, once rumours about a new Naughty Dog fantasy IP started making headlines, Nam quickly stated that the images were meant to be an homage to Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and had nothing to do with anything happening at the developers. They then went on to update the images' descriptions.
That being said, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla does not have any dragons in it, leaving many to assume this explanation was in fact a bluff from the Naughty Dog artist.