Neil Druckmann Aims to Make Players Feel 'Lost and Confused' with Naughty Dog's New Game

Neil Druckmann, the director behind the acclaimed The Last of Us, has recently shed light on Naughty Dog's next ambitious project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. In a revealing interview with Alex Garland, the mastermind behind the zombie thriller 28 Days Later, Druckmann discussed the four-year journey of crafting this new game. He humorously reflected on the polarizing reception of The Last of Us 2, stating, "We made a game, The Last of Us 2, we made certain creative decisions that got us a lot of hate. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people hate that game." Garland's light-hearted response, "Who gives a shit?" prompted Druckmann to share the team's playful shift in focus, "But the joke is like, you know what, let's do something that people won't care as much about — let's make a game about faith and religion."

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Screenshots

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Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, featuring Jordan A. Mun as Tati Gabrielle, unfolds in an alternate historical timeline dominated by a significant religion that has evolved over time. The narrative follows Jordan, a bounty hunter who crash-lands on a mysterious planet where communication has been lost for centuries. Druckmann emphasized the game's unique approach, "So many of the previous games we've done, there's always, like, an ally with you. I really want you to be lost in a place that you're really confused about what happened here, who are the people here, what was their history. And in order to get off this planet — again, no one has been heard from this planet for 600 years or so — if you ever have hoped to have a chance to get off, you have to figure out what happened here."

In other news, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, the showrunners for The Last of Us Season 2, have confirmed the return of spores, which were notably absent in Season 1. At SXSW 2025, Druckmann teased an increase in both the number and variety of infected, as well as a new method of transmission, "Season 1, we had this new thing that wasn’t in the game of these tendrils that spread, and that was one form. And then one shot you see in this trailer, there are things in the air." Additionally, actress Kaitlyn Dever, who will portray Abby in the upcoming season, shared her challenges with managing online reactions to her role.