Inside Naughty Dog: Intergalactic, a Bounty Hunter and a Studio Betting on Something New
The makers of Crash, Uncharted and The Last of Us have spent six years on their first new world since 2013. Here is everything confirmed about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and how the studio got here.
In 1984, two teenagers in McLean, Virginia, started a software company called JAM Software. A third founder left within months, and Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin bought out his share for about $100. Four decades, three blockbuster franchises and one Sony acquisition later, the company they built is about to show the world something it has not made since 2013: a brand-new universe.
That universe is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a PlayStation 5 action-adventure that Naughty Dog revealed at The Game Awards on December 12, 2024. It has no release date. But in September 2026, studio head Neil Druckmann promised a full reveal in 2027, and the studio's performance-capture shoot wrapped on August 31, 2026. The finish line is starting to come into view.
What Intergalactic is
Here is what Naughty Dog has confirmed so far.
- The hero: Jordan A. Mun, a bounty hunter played by Tati Gabrielle, best known for Uncharted (the 2022 film) and You.
- The setting: the remote planet Sempiria, which has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for more than 600 years. Jordan is stranded there while hunting a crime syndicate called the Five Aces.
- The world: an alternate history in which humanity had advanced space travel by 1986, which explains the game's retro-futuristic look of chunky hardware and analogue screens.
- The theme: the story centres on a fictional religion, the "heretic prophet" of the title.
- The people behind it: Druckmann is creative director and co-writer; Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau are game directors; Claire Carre is narrative director. The team is roughly 250 people.
The supporting cast is stacked. Kumail Nanjiani plays Colin Graves, a member of the Five Aces, alongside Tony Dalton, Ashley Scott and Stephen A. Chang. Halley Gross, co-writer of The Last of Us Part II, plays AJ, Jordan's agent. Naughty Dog regulars Troy Baker, Merle Dandridge and Robin Atkin Downes are also in the game in roles the studio has not revealed.
Six years in the making
Work on Intergalactic began in 2020, soon after The Last of Us Part II shipped. Sony trademarked the title in February 2024, ten months before the reveal. In July 2025, Druckmann stepped away from HBO's The Last of Us television series to focus on the game full time.
The public timeline since then has been mostly quiet, which is how Naughty Dog likes it: the studio has a long habit of showing very little until it is ready to show a lot. The studio wrapped performance capture, the process of recording actors' bodies, faces and voices together, at the end of August 2026. On The Last of Us Day in September, Druckmann shared new artwork and the promise of a full reveal next year. The game was also nominated for Most Wanted Game at the 2026 Golden Joystick Awards.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has reported that the studio's internal target is mid-2027. That is a report, not an announcement: Naughty Dog and Sony have not given a date.
How a studio of sequels got here
The decision to build something new matters because of who Naughty Dog has become. After Way of the Warrior (1994) won them a deal with Universal Interactive, Rubin and Gavin made Crash Bandicoot (1996), one of the original PlayStation's best-selling games. Sony bought the studio in January 2001, just as the first Jak and Daxter arrived on PS2.
Rubin and Gavin left in 2004, and the next generation of leaders reinvented the studio again. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007) launched a series that had sold more than 41 million copies by the end of 2017. Then came The Last of Us (2013), unveiled at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, and The Last of Us Part II (2020). Both were landmark successes, and both turned into a television hit.
Since 2020, though, Naughty Dog's releases have been remakes and remasters: The Last of Us Part I (2022), the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (2022) and The Last of Us Part II Remastered (2024). In December 2023, the studio also stopped work on a standalone Last of Us online game, saying it would have needed the whole studio to support it. Intergalactic is the first new Naughty Dog game in more than six years, and its first new world in thirteen.
The people at the top
The studio's leadership has also changed. Long-time president Evan Wells retired at the end of 2023. Druckmann, who joined as an intern and rose to co-president in 2020, now leads the studio and its creative direction, while Alison Mori runs operations as studio manager. Naughty Dog is based in Santa Monica, California, and had more than 400 employees in 2023.
That history includes difficult chapters. Naughty Dog's culture of long hours has been widely reported over the years, and in 2021 the studio built a team of producers partly to address crunch. Reports in 2025 said staff worked extra hours from late October to mid-December to complete an internal demo of Intergalactic for Sony. How the studio handles the final push toward launch will be watched closely.
Why it matters
Sony's biggest studios have leaned heavily on established series for a decade. That approach has produced great games, but it has also made PlayStation's line-up feel predictable. A new science-fiction world from the team behind The Last of Us is the strongest sign yet that Sony is willing to bet big on original ideas again. It is also a return to form for Naughty Dog itself: Crash, Jak, Uncharted and The Last of Us were all brand-new worlds when they launched, and each one defined a PlayStation generation.
It is also a test for Druckmann personally. He has written or co-written every Last of Us story and was closely involved with the TV adaptation. Intergalactic will show whether that storytelling voice works just as well with a bounty hunter, a lost planet and a cult instead of a post-apocalyptic America.
By the numbers
- 2020: the year development began
- ~250: developers on the team
- 600+: years Sempiria has been cut off from the galaxy
- 1986: the year this alternate humanity reached advanced space travel
- 41 million+: Uncharted series sales by December 2017
- 13: years since Naughty Dog's last new universe, The Last of Us
What to watch
The next date to circle is the full reveal in 2027. Until then, the best preparation is the studio's back catalogue: The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PS5 and PC, which shows the level of performance capture and detail Naughty Dog is now chasing, and the Uncharted games, which are the closest thing in its history to a globe-trotting adventure hero like Jordan.
And if you want the score's flavour now, listen to Reznor and Ross's film work. On the evidence of the 2024 trailer, the sound of Sempiria will be anything but quiet.