When the second season of The Last of Us airs this April, viewers will be introduced to the character of Abby.
Those who know the games will be aware of the conversation around this character, with some already expressing concern about the toxicity actress Kaitlyn Dever will likely receive through proxy of playing Abby. In fact, Dever required extra security on set because of the role.
But, while Dever has admitted it’s “hard not to see those things on the internet”, she has worked to “do this character justice” in The Last of Us’ second season.
When asked by ScreenRant if she pays attention to how people anticipate a character such as The Last of Us Part 2’s Abby, Dever replied:
“Well, it’s hard not to see those things on the internet. It’s hard not to stop myself from looking at it every once in a while, especially going into this, for sure. And I want to do this character justice and make the fans proud by bringing her to life in this kind of way.”
Dever added her “main focus was just the collaboration between Neil [Druckmann] and Craig [Mazin], and making sure I was really getting to the core of who she is and what drives her and her emotional state; her anger and her frustration and her grief and all of that,” before closing:
“I wanted to make sure that that was what I was focusing most of my energy on.”
The second season of The Last of Us is set to debut in April, and will comprise seven episodes, with one of those episodes being “quite big” in length. Earlier this month, it was announced Joe Pantoliano, Alanna Ubach, Ben Ahlers, Hettienne Park, Robert John Burke, and Noah Lamanna had all joined the cast for the second season.
Pantoliano – who has also starred in The Sopranos to name but one role – will play Eugene, with a role that has been expanded upon from the game in the style of the first season’s award winning Bill and Frank episode.
The Last of Us Part 2’s story will not be told in full during season two, with subsequent seasons expected to wrap up the narrative.