Neil Druckmann will not have anything to do with season 3 of The Last Of Us TV show, as he returns to work at Naughty Dog full-time.
Naughty Dog is one of the most respected video game developers in the world but they’re certainly not the most prolific. They haven’t made a completely new game since The Last Of Us Part 2 in 2020 and they only announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet as recently as last December.
Despite very little of it having been shown, the fan response so far has been muted and so with another secret game also in development, studio head Neil Druckmann has announced he’s stepping away from The Last Of Us TV show at HBO and won’t be involved in the third season.
Perhaps not coincidentally, he’s taking his leave after a less rapturous reception for the second season, which started to deviate considerably from the plot of the original game – which Druckmann himself co-wrote.
‘Now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative,’ wrote Druckmann on X.
Druckmann is co-writing Intergalactic with Claire Carré, but there has been considerable confusion about the tone and story behind the game. The initial teaser trailer suggests a knockabout, 80s-inspired sci-fi adventure, but descriptions of the plot talk about religion and faith being the primary themes.
That seems an odd match for a game with swordfighting robots in it, so it’s easy to imagine that Druckmann will need to knuckle down and concentrate to make it work, rather than being distracted by working on the HBO show.
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Although Naughty Dog has certainly made comedic games before, with titles like Crash Bandicoot and the early Uncharted titles, that was before Druckmann rose to be Studio Head.
Whether Intergalactic is meant to be a return to that sort of tone is unclear, but that may be exactly what Druckmann is trying to hammer out at the moment.
What games are Naughty Dog making now?
Naughty Dog has previously implied they have at least two new games in development, but there’s no clue as to what they are, other than Intergalactic.
Druckmann has been increasingly pessimistic about the chances of The Last Of Us Part 3, but while that does remain a possibility, it doesn’t seem to be the second title they’re working on, as Druckmann is merely a producer on that game, rather than a director.
There is a long-standing rumour that the second game may have a fantasy theme, possibly something involving dragons, but there’s never been any real evidence for that.
If Druckmann is no longer dividing his time between his day job and the HBO show, we’ll hopefully get to see what it is sooner rather than later.
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