Summary
It’s evident that Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Us Part 2has left a mark on fans. Whether that mark is a good one or a bad one depends on your perspective. After the unanimous appeal of the first game, there were those who turned on the series because of Part 2, whether it was because of what happened to Joel, Ellie’s sexuality, or they just hated strong, buff women.
Things became so bad that Abby actorLaura Bailey, and even her newborn son, actually received death threats– for a fictional show. Unfortunately, that hate permeated to the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us as well, and,for some reason, to the studio’s newest project,Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Studio head Neil Druckmann says there’s only one way to deal with this backlash.
It’s Just Background Noise
In a conversation withLast Stand Media(viaGamesRadar), Druckmann was asked about how he deals with all this negativity. Not only did his last game get a lot of hate, but so did The Last of Us series, and now his next project, which isn’t even out yet. His answer was rather simple, to ignore the hate. It’s also thesame advice he gave Intergalactic protagonist Tati Gabrielle, whoreceived a lot of hate just for how she looked, which apparently made the game woke.
“I don’t know if there’s much I could add to that conversation, to be honest,” said Druckmann, rather unfazed by all of it. “It’s just that there’s stuff happening right now with media that you just have to ignore for the most part, stick to your guns, and do what you believe in, and I feel like that’s how I would want artists to carry themselves.”
It’s worth noting that the only bit of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet we’ve seen is a four-and-a-half minute trailer. While there’s apparently a few frames of gameplay right at the end, this was all it took for haters to start throwing around their ‘woke’ allegations. When that’s the case, Druckmann’s method of dealing with it, and advice to Gabrielle, seems like the best course of action.
