Naughty Dog's First New IP Since The Last of Us

Let that sink in. The Last of Us launched in 2013. For over a decade, Naughty Dog has operated within two universes — Uncharted and The Last of Us — delivering some of the most acclaimed games ever made, but never venturing beyond those established worlds. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is the first original franchise from Naughty Dog in thirteen years.

Development began in 2020, immediately after the release of The Last of Us Part II. The decision to cancel The Last of Us Online — a multiplayer project that had been in development for years — was made in part to free up resources for Intergalactic. This is not a side project. This is Naughty Dog's full commitment.

Neil Druckmann, the creative director behind both The Last of Us games, leads a 250-person team as creative director and writer. Alongside him are game directors Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau, and narrative director Claire Carré. After stepping away from his work on HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation in July 2025 to focus entirely on this project, Druckmann has described Intergalactic as "our wildest, most creative story yet" — and "the deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog's history."

The Setting: An Alternate Future Rooted in the 1980s

Intergalactic takes place approximately two thousand years in the future — but in an alternate universe where the timeline diverged from ours sometime in the 1980s. In this world, advanced space travel was already established by 1986. The retro-futuristic aesthetic of the reveal trailer — 80s fashion, Sony CD players, anime on screens, Porsche spaceships — is not cosmetic. It reflects a future built on a fundamentally different technological and cultural path.

The primary setting is Sempiria — a remote planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark over 600 years ago. In those six centuries, no one who has flown to Sempiria has ever been heard from again. No ship has left its orbit. Something about Sempiria makes escape impossible — and the mystery of what happened there, what lives there now, and what the planet's isolated civilization has become over those six centuries is the beating heart of the game's premise.

Jordan A. Mun: Bounty Hunter, Survivor, Symbol

The protagonist is Jordan A. Mun — a veteran bounty hunter tracking the legendary Five Aces criminal syndicate when she ends up stranded on Sempiria. She is played by Tati Gabrielle, best known to gaming audiences as Nora in The Last of Us Season 2 on HBO.

Druckmann pitched the role to Gabrielle after she was cast in the TV series, and she auditioned alongside Troy Baker — the voice of Joel and a Naughty Dog icon. The casting process led Druckmann to compare her performance to Ashley Johnson's legendary audition for Ellie in The Last of Us. Her spiritual nature drew her to the project's central themes, and her performance has directly influenced how Jordan's character and arc evolved during development.

The supporting cast is equally remarkable. Halley Gross — co-writer of The Last of Us Part II — portrays Jordan's agent AJ. Kumail Nanjiani plays Colin Graves, a member of the Five Aces. Tony Dalton (Lalo Salamanca in Better Call Saul) and Stephen A. Smith are confirmed in roles. Troy Baker himself is also in the cast in a role that has not yet been fully revealed.

The Story: Faith, Religion, and What Happens When You Get Trapped

In conversations with 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland, Druckmann revealed that Intergalactic explores "what happens when you put your faith in different institutions" and centers on a fictional religion that has developed on Sempiria during its 600 years of isolation.

In a moment of characteristic dark humor, Druckmann acknowledged the divisive storytelling choices in The Last of Us Part II and joked that Intergalactic would tackle something that would not upset people as much: faith and religion.

The game takes inspiration from anime like Akira (1988) and Cowboy Bebop (1998) — a creative reference point that signals something wilder and more tonally varied than the post-apocalyptic intensity of The Last of Us. This is a game about pulpy science fiction adventure filtered through Naughty Dog's commitment to emotional depth and character truth.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Are Scoring the Soundtrack

The soundtrack is being composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — the Nine Inch Nails frontman and his longtime creative partner, who won Academy Awards for their scores to The Social Network, Soul, and Mank. Their involvement in Intergalactic represents another major swing by Naughty Dog — a composer pairing whose work operates at the absolute frontier of cinematic music.

The announcement trailer's use of "It's a Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys — selected by Druckmann after an extensive search for the perfect 1980s song about faith — immediately established the game's tonal identity: something retro and melancholy and propulsive all at once.

Gameplay: The Deepest in Naughty Dog History

Naughty Dog has kept gameplay details deliberately limited, but what has been confirmed is significant. The game is a third-person action-adventure — the studio's native format — with combat against hostile, blade-wielding robots as one confirmed element. Druckmann has hinted at more open-ended exploration with "less hand-holding" than previous Naughty Dog titles. Early development footage has suggested some degree of player freedom comparable to other popular exploration-focused games.

The studio's promise that this will represent "the deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog's history" sets an extraordinarily high bar — and positions Intergalactic not just as a cinematic experience but as a significant gameplay evolution for a studio that has historically prioritized narrative over mechanical complexity.

When Is It Coming?

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has reported that Intergalactic is internally scheduled for mid-2027. Sony's new strategy of keeping single-player PlayStation games as console exclusives means it will remain a PS5 title — and potentially a cross-generation launch straddling PS5 and whatever comes next from Sony, depending on when PS6 ultimately arrives.

No official release date or window has been confirmed. The game's next major public reveal — presumably a gameplay trailer — is expected to generate one of the biggest reactions in gaming when it finally arrives.

Conclusion

Naughty Dog has earned the right to be ambitious. The Last of Us changed what people thought video game storytelling could be. The Last of Us Part II proved the studio could make something genuinely challenging and uncompromising. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is their biggest swing yet — a new universe, a new protagonist, a new genre, and creative ambitions that feel genuinely limitless.

2027. Sempiria is waiting. And Jordan A. Mun is not going down without a fight.

A bounty hunter. A forbidden planet. 600 years of secrets. And no way out.