The star of Naughty Dog’s next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, has said that Neil Druckmann has been “bootcamping” her on dealing with online backlash.
Tati Gabrielle, who plays Jordan, the protagonist of Naughty Dog‘s next game, has said that Naughty Dog’s Druckmann has been coaching her on how to deal with online backlash, based on the experience of The Last of Us’s cast.
“Neil’s been bootcamp-ing me,” she told EW. “I know Troy’s experience, I know Ashley’s experience…I know Laura Bailey’s experience.
“I got a lot of love, but there was a lot of hate over me being a woman, me being a woman of color, me having my head shaved, all these things that I didn’t even actually initially see — I’m out of the social media zeitgeist for that reason — but once I did, Neil was like, ‘Ignore it. No matter what, me and you, we’re going to make something beautiful. We’re going to make something that we’re proud of.’”
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was announced during The Game Awards in 2024.
The game features a sci-fi setting, and its debut trailer includes a Porsche spaceship. The game’s soundtrack is being composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
“Intergalactic stars our newest protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, a dangerous bounty hunter who ends up stranded on Sempiria – a distant planet whose communication with the outside universe went dark hundreds of years ago,” reads a synopsis for the game.
Neil Druckmann has said that while The Last of Us series is about grief, the next game from Naughty Dog will be about faith and religion. Tati Gabrielle expanded on those themes as part of the same interview.
“The question of faith is not black and white,” she explained. “When you initially think of faith, you think of religion, which is a part of it, but there’s also faith in oneself. There’s faith in your environment or your community. All that faith means is, What are your beliefs? What are the things that you hope for? Faith sounds flowery, but we all experience it day in and day out. What is your reason for waking up?”
Druckmann said last July that numerous games, including “multiple single-player projects”, were in development at Naughty Dog, but stressed that while they won’t all be The Last of Us titles, they will have a similar goal.
“We create experiences that are steeped in story and character, especially relationships,” he told the LA Times. “The stories have some sort of philosophical core that everything is going to revolve around and feed into.”
It was claimed last year that Naughty Dog’s next game will have a significant focus on player freedom.
