Neil Druckmann Offers Grim Update on The Last of Us Movie Development

It’s been over a year since any news has come out regarding the highly-anticipated The Last of Us movie, and there’s apparently a reason behind that. Speaking with IGN, The Last of Us game director and writer of the film’s script, Neil Druckmann, revealed that the film has entered a place even Joel can’t escape from.

“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,” he said. “There hasn’t been any work done on it in over a year and a half.”

It was previously revealed that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was being eyed for the role of Ellie in the film, though with the film stuck in development, the actress may move on toward other projects.

The Last of Us follows hardened survivor Joel and Ellie, a young and capable girl, on their journey through a radically transformed world. Set twenty years after an infectious pandemic spread by the cordyceps virus ravaged the course of humanity, these two people, who were brought together by chance, must make life-altering decisions in order to survive. The Last of Us explores themes of survival, loyalty, love, and redemption in an emotionally charged expedition across a post-epidemic United States.

Druckmann was set to co-produce the film along with Naughty Dog Co-Presidents’ Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, Game Director Bruce Straley, and filmmaker Sam Raimi via the Ghost House Pictures banner.