'The Last of Us 2' release date news: Naughty Dog to release a movie adaptation

The critically acclaimed success of the "Last of Us" is fueling seemingly endless speculations of a follow-up title. The game is largely praised for its powerful and emotional storytelling in a post-apocalyptic setting. Latest updates, however, indicate an upcoming screen adaptation of the game.

If reports hold weight, the release of the highly anticipated sequel to the horror drama series may have to wait a little further as the movie takes priority, Naughty Dog said. Creative director Neil Druckmann mentioned that working on the film will take some time to complete. The post-apocalyptic game itself took more than three years to finish. This would have serious implications as far as the development of the game's second installment is concerned.

The same can also be said of "The Uncharted" movie adaptation. Delays are largely expected. After all, development of the game's film version starting from the conceptualization stage is eating up some good nine years to this day.

"I have been a writer on it, but right now it hasn't moved anywhere in the past couple years. 'The Uncharted' film has been in development now for I think nine years so we've learned these things happen at their own time, very slowly," Druckmann said such to 89.3 KPCC's The Frame, as reported by Parent Herald.

Meanwhile, lead character Ellie will reportedly kill Joel in the rumored sequel. Ellie was made to believe about Joel's elaborate yet fabricated background story for her continuing existence. He reportedly claimed that on the day he found her, she was supposedly ready to give herself up to the Fireflies as a sacrifice to find the cure. However, she woke up seeing people dead around her. Joel seemed to be the only one who survived. He then told her that it was he who "saved" her.

Along the way, Ellie may have uncovered the truth about what happened at that time leading her to confront Joel over the matter. The emotionally driven confrontation may have resulted in the latter's unfortunate demise in Ellie's hands, Chattsports Net reported. However, human emotions will probably make Ellie back down from her murderous attempt to exact revenge on Joel.

As indicated earlier, the release date would roughly fall between 2018 and 2020 or beyond depending on the pace of the game's film adaptation.