Neil Druckmann, Creative Director at Naughty Dog and one of the lead developers who worked on The Last of Us, has cast doubt over Sony’s feature film adaptation.

Word comes by way of IGN, where Druckmann was quizzed about the progress of the movie while promoting next month’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Early signs may have been positive, during a time when Game of Thrones starlet Maisie Williams had been linked with the coveted role of Ellie, but fast forward a year and change and Druckmann appears less confident, conceding that The Last of Us film has slipped in development hell “like these things tend to do.”

Per IGN:

“I know I said in an interview a while back we had a table read, got the script to a good place and it kind of entered development hell like these things tend to do. There hasn’t been any work done on it in over a year and a half.”

Prior to today’s worrying news, Druckmann had been in line to executive produce the project alongside Naughty Dog Co-Presidents’ Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, and The Last of Us Co-Director Bruce Straley, along with the support of Sam Raimi through his Ghost House Pictures banner.

On paper, it seemed to be a match made in heaven, with one of the few remaining pieces of the puzzle being who to cast opposite Williams as the grizzled, world-weary Joel. Alas, at least for now, Druckmann’s comments suggest that The Last of Us has been placed on ice over at Sony and given that there’s been no tangible progress in “over a year and a half,” it would take something fairly significant – a casting or director announcement, perhaps – to force the wheels back into motion.