The development of "The Last of Us 2" was temporarily halted so developer Naughty Dog can focus on "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End." Now that this game is out, the rumor mills have new details to churn about the sequel.

In the latest interview of Naughty Dog developer Neil Druckmann, he stated that it took them three and a half years to put together the first "The Last of Us" installment.

If the company will take that long in making "The Last of Us 2" and with the schedule of the folks over at Naughty Dog just having freed up with "Uncharted 4" now done, the wait could be until 2019.

That being said, there's still a long way to go before gamers get to see "The Last of Us 2" in the flesh especially with the "Uncharted 4" downloadable content or DLC still taking up some of the developers' time.

However, Cinema Blend says that a 2017 or 2018 release for "The Last of Us 2" is more likely since it was said that the sequel will be the focus of Naughty Dog after a DLC launch for "Uncharted 4."

The multiplayer DLC was already released for the Nathan Drake game, but the company is still working on new single-player content and it is unclear if this will affect the timing of "The Last of Us 2" development as well.

As for the story, Druckmann had various ideas about the game. A couple of years back during a Reddit AMA, Druckmann said that the sequel might not feature Joel and Ellie if voice actors Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker won't be back.

Then just late last year during an interview with Games Radar, Druckmann once again brought up the idea of moving on from the duo and featuring new faces in "The Last of Us 2.".

He revealed that before he and fellow game director Bruce Straley were yanked to work on "Uncharted 4," they have been brainstorming ideas for the game with new protagonists.

However, he also said that they were additionally working on ideas involving Joel and Ellie as well as giving "The Last of Us 2" a science fiction and fantasy feel.

Interestingly, there are reports that "The Last of Us 2" will kill off Joel, with his death caused by none other than Ellie reportedly as a result of the Fireflies carnage done by the former.

It is unknown if this will pan out in the game, but at the moment, it seems that an official story is not in place yet.