Naughty Dog, the developer behind The Last of Us, Uncharted, Jak & Daxter, and the original Crash Bandicoot games, finally revealed what it’s been working on since The Last of Us Part II launched in 2020. The game is called Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet and it’s coming to a PlayStation 5 near you. We saw the first trailer for it at The Game Awards, and in the days since, some more details have trickled out through interviews, blog posts, and social media. Read on for a recap of everything we’ve gleaned thus far about Naughty Dog’s next game.
What is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet about?
Intergalactic follows a space-faring bounty hunter named Jordan A. Mun who ends up stranded on a planet called Sempiria. Communication with the planet has been dark for over 600 years, and no one has left its orbit in all that time. Jordan goes to Sempiria in search of members of the Five Aces crime syndicate, apparently because she’s in desperate need of the bounty. They seemingly have history, as in Jordan’s ship, we see a photo of her and what appears to be other members of the group, though the specifics of her relationship with them are unconfirmed. Once she reaches the planet’s surface, she’s faced by hostile robots and likely other dangers.
That’s the gist of what we know of the main plot, but as far as the larger world of Intergalactic, director Neil Druckmann explained to The New York Times that Jordan’s story will also include some kind of fictional religion at the center and explore “what happens when you put your faith in different institutions.” Druckmann also said that Intergalactic takes place in an alternate future in which space travel had become pretty advanced by the 1980s. That’s why you’ll notice several retrofuturistic elements in Jordan’s space ship, including a CD player on which she spins “It’s a Sin” by the Pet Shop Boys and a CRT television on which she watches anime.
Intergalactic’s reveal trailer definitely feels like it’s cut from the same cloth as Uncharted and The Last of Us in terms of being a “prestige” cinematic story-driven game, and Druckmann says much of the team’s inspiration came from anime like Akira and Cowboy Bebop. Fans have even noted that some details in the trailer appear to be homages to Akira, from Jordan’s red jacket to the CD player in her ship.
Who’s involved?
While we only know the broad strokes of the game’s story and haven’t seen any actual gameplay yet, we do know a fair number of the key personnel attached to Intergalactic. Druckmann is the creative director after leading both The Last of Us games and Uncharted 4, with Naughty Dog veterans Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau both acting as game directors.
Jordan is played by actor Tati Gabrielle, who Naughty Dog fans may recognize from her role in the Uncharted movie as mercenary leader Jo Braddock, a character who kinda felt like a stand-in for Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy’s antagonist-turned-ally Nadine Ross. By the time Intergalactic is out, fans will likely be even more acquainted with her, as she plays Nora in The Last of Us’ upcoming second season.
Outside of Gabrielle, we know a few other actors who will make an appearance in Intergalactic. Halley Gross, the co-writer and narrative lead on The Last of Us Part II, will play AJ, Jordan’s agent, as seen in the announcement trailer. The Big Sick and Eternals actor Kumail Nanjiani will appear as Colin Graves, one of the Five Aces Jordan is hunting. Better Call Saul actor Tony Dalton is also playing a member of the Five Aces, but the character’s name is unknown right now. Troy Baker, who plays Joel in The Last of Us games and James in the HBO series, is also confirmed to play a character in Intergalactic.
Lastly, the duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are composing music for the game. The two have written countless scores for films over the years, with some recent standouts including Challengers and Queer. This marks their first time working on a video game score together.
What’s the plan for the future?
Druckmann told The New York Times that Naughty Dog had been restructured as “an IP powerhouse” following layoffs over the past year, and the studio is aiming for Intergalactic to become a big new franchise for PlayStation. Whether or not that comes to pass will depend on how the first game does, but given Sony’s propensity to milk games for spin-offs and external media, I wouldn’t doubt that Sony wants Intergalactic to spawn sequels and maybe some TV or movie adaptations. Naughty Dog is already presenting the game as a “franchise” in its official announcement, so it sounds like expectations for this one are pretty high. We’ll see how it all pans out at some point in the coming months or years, as right now we don’t know when Intergalactic will actually make its way to our PlayStation 5s.