Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic star is trained by Neil Druckmann to deal with the haters

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is shaping up to be another Naughty Dog classic, with the emotional story and talented actors crafting what looks to be a great adventure. However, they’ve had to work on more than that for its release. One star has had to be trained by Neil Druckmann to deal with predicted haters.

Naughty Dog is best known for The Last of Us and Uncharted, both huge franchises that defined the developers as one of the greats. However, in The Last of Us Part 2, the game took an unexpected turn in the story (no spoilers here), causing an immense amount of backlash towards the voice actors.

Part 2’s Abby is one of the most divisive characters in gaming, and a lot of the hate towards the character was aimed at the actor, Laura Bailey. As such, Naughty Dog seems keen to prepare for any incoming frustrations by training their latest lead star to handle the haters.

Intergalactic’s Tati Gabrielle trained by Naughty Dog to handle haters

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tati Gabrielle, star of Naughty Dog’s upcoming game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, shared the preparation she’s been getting in response to the infamous hate from The Last of Us Part 2.

“Neil’s been bootcamp-ing me,” reveals Gabrielle, explaining how it’s not just the change from movies to games she’s been dealing with, but how to deal with the same kind of hate the previous stars faced. She added, “I know Troy’s experience, I know Ashley’s experience…I know Laura Bailey’s experience,” referring to the three main characters from TLOU2.

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Of course, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a very different style of game to The Last of Us, this time being set in futuristic space. Tati Gabrielle continued to explain that “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.”

During the “bootcamp-ing,” Neil explained to her, “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.”

There’s no announced release date for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but when it does, it’s clear that Naughty Dog is taking steps to prepare the actors.