Nathan Drake might not be done climbing after all. A new report says Naughty Dog is building a brand-new Uncharted game — not a remake, not a remaster — marking the series’ first original entry in nearly a decade.
The report comes from MP1st, and it’s already been picked up and corroborated by outlets including Push Square, VGC, and Kotaku. According to their sources, the project is being led by Shaun Escayg, the creative director behind 2017’s Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Escayg left Naughty Dog for a stint as creative director on Marvel’s Avengers at Crystal Dynamics, then returned to the studio in 2021. For years, fans have wondered what his team was working on — now they have an answer.
The most talked-about detail: Nathan Drake is reportedly in the game. What he won’t be, according to MP1st, is the lead. That matches the ending of Uncharted 4, which jumped forward in time to reveal Drake’s daughter, Cassie, eagerly paging through her parents’ adventure journals. The theory that Cassie takes up the mantle has floated around the fandom for years, and this report pours fresh fuel on it — imagine Drake in a mentoring role, the way Victor Sullivan guided him through the earlier games.
There were reasons to take this seriously even before the report landed. Back in March 2025, insider DanielRPK claimed Escayg had been directing an unannounced project for roughly three years. Earlier this year, Escayg himself posted photos from Trinidad on what he called research, including a very old-looking cannon — exactly the kind of prop research an Uncharted location scout would do. Reliable leaker NateTheHate also confirmed this week that Escayg is not attached to a Last of Us project, which narrows the field considerably.
Temper expectations on timing. The project is reportedly in its earliest stages, and it won’t begin in earnest until Naughty Dog wraps Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet — the sci-fi epic first teased in 2024 that won’t get its full reveal until 2027. Kotaku suggests a release could land in the first half of the PlayStation 6’s lifecycle, which likely puts it around 2029 or 2030. After Uncharted, the report says The Last of Us Part III would be next in line.
It’s been ten years since Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and nine since The Lost Legacy. A generational hand-off — Cassie front and center, Drake as the grizzled mentor — would be a fitting way to bring the series back.
Sources: MP1st, Dot Esports, Wccftech