Neil Druckmann Aims to Make New Game 'Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet' Confusing and Disorienting

Neil Druckmann, the director behind the critically acclaimed The Last of Us, recently provided intriguing insights into Naughty Dog's upcoming title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. In an engaging interview with Alex Garland, the mastermind behind the zombie thriller 28 Days Later, Druckmann discussed the four-year journey of developing this new game.

Reflecting on past projects, Druckmann humorously remarked, "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," to which Garland lightheartedly responded, "Who gives a shit?" Druckmann agreed, suggesting a shift in focus for their new project: "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 centered around a significant religion that has evolved over time. The narrative follows Jordan, a bounty hunter, who crash-lands on a planet where this religion is dominant. Her mission is to unravel the planet's mysteries and be the first in centuries to escape its orbit.

Druckmann teased the plot, saying, "This whole religion takes place on this one planet, and then at one point, all communication stops. And you're playing a bounty hunter that's chasing her bounty, and she crash lands on this planet. 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, last week, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, the showrunners for The Last of Us Season 2, confirmed that "spores are back" after their absence in Season 1. Speaking at SXSW 2025, Druckmann elaborated on the escalation of the infected, stating, "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 shared her experience of playing Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, admitting the challenge of resisting the urge to check internet reactions to her performance.