Naughty Dog's Intergalactic Delayed Past 2026, Druckmann Says 'Incredible' in Office Playtest

With fans eagerly awaiting the release of *The Witcher 4*, it seems they'll have to wait until at least 2027. Similarly, Naughty Dog's newly announced *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* won't see the light of day until the same year, as confirmed by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier on ResetEra. This means *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* won't be launching next year, aligning its release timeline with *The Witcher 4*.

A key question surrounding *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* is whether it will target the PlayStation 5 or the upcoming PlayStation 6, or if it will be a cross-gen title. If it launches directly on the PS6, Naughty Dog might miss out on releasing a new game on the PS5, as the studio has so far focused on ports, remasters, and remakes 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* for Sony's current-gen console.

Naughty Dog unveiled *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* at The Game Awards 2024, showcasing a stellar cast including Tati Gabrielle from the Uncharted movie as protagonist Jordan A. Mun, and Kumail Nanjiani of *Marvel's Eternals* as Colin Graves. Fans have eagerly dissected the trailer to identify the rest of the cast, with a crew photo revealing additional characters.

Earlier this month, Neil Druckmann, the director of *The Last of Us*, shared more insights into *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* during an interview with Alex Garland, the writer behind the zombie film *28 Days Later*. Druckmann revealed that the game had been in development for four years, highlighting the creative challenges faced by the team.

"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 said. Garland responded lightheartedly, "Who gives a shit?" Druckmann agreed, adding, "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* is set in an alternate historical timeline and centers around a "pretty prominent religion" that has evolved over time. Druckmann teased, "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."

Druckmann further explained the game's unique approach, saying, "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, it will have been in development for six years by then. Speaking to IGN on the red carpet before the premiere of *The Last of Us* Season 2, Druckmann shared his excitement about the game's progress, stating, "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 of the iceberg. The game goes pretty deep beyond that."