Naughty Dog creative director Shaun Escayg posted a picture of a cannon in Trinidad & Tobago alongside the tease, “Research,” and fans think it has to do with Uncharted 5.
The Uncharted series has been dormant ever since 2017’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which Escayg himself co-directed. While Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection came out in 2022, fans of the action adventure franchise are keen to know whether Naughty Dog intends to make a new mainline Uncharted game.
Perhaps it does. As spotted by Kotaku, Escayg’s picture was taken at Fort George in Trinidad and Tobago. A cannon in a fort in Trinidad and Tobago certainly feels very Uncharted, but of course this could be for anything. Perhaps Escayg simply has a personal interest in historic British fortifications. Maybe he’s putting together a photo album.
Or maybe Naughty Dog is actually working on a new Uncharted game. Escayg is creative director of… something. And the Sony-owned studio is rumored to be working on multiple single-player games, including the announced Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. If a new Uncharted game is in the works, it begs all sorts of questions. Is it a sequel or a prequel? Will we see Nathan Drake return older and wiser? Or will we see a new protagonist take the stage, perhaps his daughter, Cassie? What about a Sam and Sully adventure? There are lots of ways Naughty Dog could take Uncharted, given the state of things at the end of Uncharted 4. But then, just this week we got a potential The Last of Us 3 tease from Naughty Dog chief Neil Druckmann. So, if all this lines up with reality, Naughty Dog has a lot on its plate.
Triple-A games are taking an increasingly long time to make, despite pressure from corporate overlords to cut costs and speed up development. So we may not find out what Naughty Dog’s post Intergalactic game is for some time to come, Uncharted or otherwise. Until then, though, fans are convinced the Drakes are on the way back.
“It has to be,” one fan said. “Palms and cannons = Uncharted. It works 99% of the time.” “Definitely Uncharted or I’m just hopelessly wishing,” another said. “This means it’s super early,” said one fan, seemingly convinced.
In July last year, Druckmann announced he would not be creatively involved in the upcoming Season 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us TV series, opting instead to focus entirely on game development of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. But just a couple of months beforehand, he revealed the studio had a secret, unannounced second game in the works.
In an interview with the Press X to Continue podcast, Druckmann discussed his ongoing roles at Naughty Dog. On Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Druckmann works with two game directors: Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau, and is co-writing the game with narrative director Claire Carré. Druckmann did not say which director is working on the second game, however.
“There’s another game that’s being worked on at Naughty Dog where I am more of a producer role and I get to mentor and watch this other team and give feedback and be like the executive in the room,” he said.
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“I enjoy all those roles, and the fact I jump between one to the next, it makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I’m never bored.”
Is this game Uncharted 5? Even if it is, or were, it could always end up canceled, as so many games are. Indeed, Naughty Dog has recent experience of this, canceling The Last of Us Online back in 2023 so it could focus on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet — something its director only found out about 24 hours before the public.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
