Marvel’s Avengers Creative Director Returns to Naughty Dog

Shaun Escayg is a video game director that previously worked at Naughty Dog. Throughout his time with the company, Escayg helped work on The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and eventually went on to direct Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Back in 2018, Escayg ended up announcing that he was leaving the studio to go to Crystal Dynamics to develop Marvel’s Avengers. Now, after releasing Avengers last year, Escayg today announced that he is once again back at Naughty Dog.

Shared over on Twitter, Escayg revealed that today is his first day back at Naughty Dog after his departure. “Happy to be back with the Dogs!” Escayg said in the tweet. Along with the caption, he also posted a picture of a mug that contains Naughty Dog’s paw print logo. No other news was shared by Escayg about what he might be doing next at the studio, but we’ll surely find out in due time.

This move is one that I imagine will bring with it a litany of questions from many fans. For starters, why did Escayg leave Crystal Dynamics? And does this mean that Marvel’s Avengers is in even more trouble than many already assumed? Well, that’s probably not the case. Escayg specifically helped develop the campaign that Marvel’s Avengers shipped with when it released last year. Since that element of the game is one that is wholly complete, it seems like Escayg’s work on the project was largely finished.

In a subsequent response, one fan on Twitter even happened to ask Escayg what his return to Naughty Dog means for Marvel’s Avengers. Escayg said confidently that, “Marvel’s Avengers is in good hands.”

What’s perhaps most interesting about Escayg’s return to Naughty Dog is that it might mean he could be heading up one of the studio’s forthcoming projects. Since he has been a director more often than not over the past few years, it stands to reason that Escayg will be filling that role again on a new game. Whether or not he ends up getting attached to the two Naughty Dog games that we seemingly know are in development with the remake of The Last of Us or the Factions multiplayer spin-off remains to be seen.

So what do you think about all of this? And what do you expect to see Escayg doing at Naughty Dog moving forward? Share your thoughts with me either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.