Kaitlyn Dever on The Last of Us Season 2: Battling Online Buzz

Actress Kaitlyn Dever, cast as Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, acknowledges the difficulty of ignoring online reactions to her portrayal. The character of Abby has been the target of significant online toxicity, with harassment directed at Naughty Dog employees, including Neil Druckmann and actress Laura Bailey, extending to threats and abuse against Bailey's family. HBO took this into account during filming, providing Dever with additional security. Isabel Merced, who plays Dina, commented on the disturbing reality of fans directing hate towards a fictional character: "There's so many strange people in this world because there are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person. Just a reminder: not a real person."

The Last of Us Season 2 Character Posters

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In a ScreenRant interview, Dever discussed the anticipation surrounding her portrayal of Abby: “Well, it's hard not to see those things on the internet,” she admitted. “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. But my main focus was just the collaboration between Neil 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. I wanted to make sure that that was what I was focusing most of my energy on.”

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Neil Druckmann recently clarified that the HBO adaptation will deviate from the game's depiction of Abby's physique. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Druckmann and Craig Mazin explained that Dever's casting didn't require her to undergo significant physical transformation. Druckmann stated, "We would've struggled to find someone as good as Kaitlyn to play this role. In the game, you have to play both [Ellie and Abby] and we need them to play differently. We needed Ellie to feel smaller and kind of maneuver around, and Abby was meant to play more like Joel in that she's almost like a brute in the way she can physically manhandle certain things. That doesn't play as big of a role in this version of the story because there's not as much violent action moment to moment. It's more about the drama. I'm not saying there's no action here. It's just, again, different priorities and how you approach it."

Mazin added, "I personally think there is an amazing opportunity here to delve into someone who is perhaps physically more vulnerable than the Abby in the game, but whose spirit is stronger. And then the question is: 'Where does her formidable nature come from and how does it manifest?' That's something that will be explored now and later." This "now and later" comment hints at HBO's intention to adapt The Last of Us Part II beyond a single season. While a Season 3 isn't confirmed, Mazin previously indicated that Part 2's narrative scope necessitates further adaptation, and Season 2 has been structured with a "natural breakpoint" after seven episodes.