Naughty Dog is focused on releasing its first new IP since 2013’s The Last of Us in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but a new report suggests it is also busy with the revival of its biggest franchise.
According to MP1st, and corroborated by VGC, Naughty Dog could be developing Uncharted 5, a sequel to a series that last saw an entry in 2017. The report claims that Uncharted: The Lost Legacy director Shaun Escayag is leading the project, after briefly leaving Naughty Dog to work on Crystal Dynamic’s ill-fated Avengers. It’s suggested that Uncharted 5 will be the studio’s next release after Intergalactic, with The Last of Us 3 coming afterwards. That would align with Naughty Dog’s recent announcement that it is working on multiple new Last of Us projects.
The report doesn’t have too many details on the game itself, outside of mentioning that the series’ main protagonist, Nathan Drake, will be present in some capacity. That could leave the door open for Cassie Drake, Nathan’s daughter who appears at the end of Uncharted: 4 A Thief’s End, to potentially take over as the series’ lead going forward. This latest entry is also apparently not a remake of any sort, with Naughty Dog reportedly shelving those plans a long time ago.
Uncharted 4 was positioned as the definitive end for Nathan Drake’s story when it released in 2016, but Naughty Dog has repeatedly suggested that it is not done with the franchise. Escayag himself stated in 2022 that it’s a world the studio wants to see more of, saying “I think we can say for certain that we can never say never.” In February of this year, he posted a vague Instagram photo of a cannon in a tropical environment that was captioned “research,” suggesting that he might be working on something related to Uncharted.
When Uncharted 5 might release is anyone’s guess, but it’s more likely that it’ll arrive on the PlayStation 6 given that Sony is expected to release its next-generation console sometime in 2028. Intergalatic, the studio’s most imminent project, will be revealed in full in 2027, with a release window still unknown.
