Naughty Dog’s president and creative lead, Neil Druckmann, has confirmed that the studio is secretly developing a second, unannounced game alongside *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet*. This revelation came during an interview with the *Press X to Continue* podcast, where Druckmann provided insight into his evolving roles within the Sony-owned development team.
On *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet*, Druckmann is working closely with two game directors—Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau—and co-writing the story with narrative director Claire Carré. However, he did not specify which director is leading the charge on the mysterious second project.
“There’s another game being worked on at Naughty Dog where I’m more of a producer role. I get to mentor and observe this other team, provide feedback, and serve as the executive in the room,” Druckmann explained.
“I enjoy all those roles, and the fact that I jump between one to the next makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I’m never bored.”
At this point, it's unclear how far along either title is in development. Since *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet* is already publicly announced, it’s likely further into production. But what exactly is this second game?
One possibility is *The Last of Us Part III*. While Druckmann has previously expressed uncertainty about whether Naughty Dog could make the game, he noted that he does have an ending in mind for the series. Given that he’s taking more of a producer role on the second game, however, it seems unlikely to be *The Last of Us Part III*, as he would almost certainly want to be deeply involved creatively.
Another potential candidate is a new *Uncharted* installment. It’s been nearly seven years since 2017’s *Uncharted: The Lost Legacy*, and fans have been eager for a return to the franchise. Alternatively, the mystery title could be an entirely new intellectual property, just like *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet*.
It's also worth noting that not every internally developed game at Naughty Dog reaches release. The studio canceled its *Last of Us* multiplayer spin-off in late 2023, known then as *The Last of Us Online*, due to concerns over resource allocation and long-term sustainability of live service models. At the time, Naughty Dog stated that focusing on post-launch content would have compromised its ability to create future single-player titles.
“Naughty Dog stopped development on *The Last of Us Online* in December 2023 because we would have had to dedicate all our resources to post-launch content for many years—an approach that would have negatively impacted our capacity to develop future single-player games,” said Druckmann.
Historically, Naughty Dog has struggled to juggle multiple large-scale AAA projects simultaneously, often prioritizing one over the other. The studio hasn’t released a completely original title since *The Last of Us Part II* in 2020, relying on remakes and compilation packages in the interim.
As for *Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet*, the game features a high-profile voice cast including Tati Gabrielle (*Uncharted* movie) as protagonist Jordan A. Mun and Kumail Nanjiani (*Marvel’s Eternals*) as Colin Graves. Despite not being expected to launch before 2027, Druckmann emphasized that the game is already playable internally and exceeds expectations.
“We are playing it at the office and it’s incredible,” Druckmann shared during an interview with IGN at the premiere of *The Last of Us Season 2*.
“I'm so excited to finally show gameplay to the world. What we've shown so far is only the very tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more depth to the experience than people realize.”
