'The Last of Us 2' release date: Sequel getting major overhaul

"The Last of Us 2" is yet to be made official, but it is believed that developer Naughty Dog is already working on the long-awaited sequel.

As Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann revealed early this year, he and his directing partner Bruce Straley already had prototypes of various ideas for the game.

Around that time, he said that there were already a bunch of ideas for "The Last of Us 2," where they thought about bringing back Joel and Ellie but also considered starting on a clean slate.

Last year, he provided to GamesRadar a detailed image of their plans for "The Last of Us 2," which involved a potential wipe-out of everything established in the first game.

"We were brainstorming ideas for 'The Last of Us 2' with new characters; ideas for TLOU 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one of those ideas," Druckmann said.

"And just as we were getting close to settling or narrowing that list down, we were asked to work on Uncharted 4," he continued.

Druckmann said that they will be back to working "The Last of Us 2" when the single-player expansion for "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" is complete.

With the rumors suggesting that the story downloadable content (DLC) for the game is set for release next month at the PlayStation Experience (PSX) 2016, Naughty Dog could be transitioning to "The Last of Us 2" anytime soon.

With regards to the prototypes they have been working on, Druckmann said that while they were working on the sequel for a short amount of time last year, "we don't know what we're doing next and we won't know until probably a few months after we finish Uncharted 4."

Despite this, rumors have it that Naughty Dog could churn out "The Last of Us 2" as early as mid-2018.