Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Delayed Beyond 2026, Druckmann Says 'It's Incredible'

With fans eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Witcher series, it looks like they’ll have to hold on until 2027 for The Witcher 4. Similarly, Naughty Dog's newly announced game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, is also set to release no earlier than 2027. This timeline was confirmed by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier on ResetEra, dashing hopes of a 2026 release for both titles.

The anticipation for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet brings up questions about its platform. Will it target the PlayStation 5, the upcoming PlayStation 6, or perhaps be a cross-gen title? If Naughty Dog opts for a direct release on PS6, it would mean skipping an entire console generation for new content, as the studio has so far only released ports, remasters, and remakes on the PS5, including titles like The Last of Us Part II, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, The Last of Us Part I, and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was unveiled at The Game Awards 2024, boasting a star-studded cast with Tati Gabrielle from the Uncharted movie playing the protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, and Kumail Nanjiani from Marvel's Eternals as Colin Graves. Fans have eagerly dissected the trailer, piecing together the rest of the cast from a crew photo featured within.

Earlier this month, Neil Druckmann, the director of The Last of Us, shared additional insights into the development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet during an interview with Alex Garland, the writer of the zombie movie 28 Days Later. Druckmann revealed that the game has been in development for four years and discussed the creative decisions made post-The Last of Us Part II, which received mixed reactions from fans.

"I joke about this with the team. 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," Druckmann remarked, with Garland humorously responding, "Who gives a shit?" Druckmann continued, "Exactly. 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 unfolds in an alternate historical timeline, centered around a significant religion that has evolved over time. 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."

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Screenshots

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Assuming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet launches in 2027, the game will have been in development for six years by that time. While the wait is lengthy, Druckmann provided an encouraging update during an interview with IGN at the red carpet of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere, stating that the game is not only playable but "really good." He added, "I will say we are playing it at the office and it's incredible. It's really good. I'm so excited to finally put gameplay out into the world and show people about it, because we just showed you the very, very, very tip on the iceberg. The game goes pretty deep beyond that."