With the return of The Last of Us comes the arrival of Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, a central character in Part II of the video game, as a soldier seeking vengeance.
But Dever’s history with The Last of Us goes back a decade, as she was initially eyed to play Ellie (the series’ lead character, played by Bella Ramsey) years ago when a film adaptation was being planned for the game.
“I didn’t even audition. It was only just like meetings I was having with Kirsten Chuba Neil [Druckmann]. I was going to [Druckmann’s video game company] Naughty Dog and he was showing me how the game was created and definitely giving me spoilers for game II years before it came out; I had to carry a lot of weight, it’s been rough these last 10 years, I have to say,” Dever told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. “I always thought about it as this thing that I bonded a lot with with my dad and we played the game together. I had those few months where I was talking to Neil about potentially playing Ellie, but then, as moviemaking goes, that went away for a while.”
She said that after the project pivoted, “I was really excited to see it as a show and Bella did such an amazing job and the two of them, Bella and Pedro, do something so magical in the first season that I was honestly just a fan. So when it came back around into my life,” with the role of Abby, “it almost felt like, oh, this was always meant to be in my life, just in a different way, and that felt really cool.”
Druckmann admitted that he and co-showrunner Craig Mazin “were actually really nervous” when it came to casting Abby “because it’s such a pivotal role.”
After maintaining a relationship with Dever throughout the years, “the idea came up that she should play Abby”, he continued, and “we’re never 100 percent sure when we cast someone but we were fairly confident, and then once she acted in those scenes against Bella, against Pedro, we’re like, oh my god, lightning in a bottle again. How lucky are we.”
Mazin added that in looking for their Abby, they needed “somebody who can stand on her own as the hero, as the villain, as somebody we love, as somebody we’re confused by, as somebody we root for and against. They have to make us connect to them in this deep way, and Kaitlyn just has this profound nature — there’s a depth there. I always say there are actors that you want to hang out with but then there are actors you want to hug, and she’s both at the same time.”
Season two sees a five-year time jump from the first season, with Ellie and Joel (Pedro Pascal) settled in a survivor community in Jackson, Wyoming. The two are in conflict with each other at the start of season and Joel is seeing a therapist, played by Catherine O’Hara.
Mazin said they originally thought of sending Joel to therapy in season one but opted to hold it until the second season. “I just kept thinking in a post-apocalyptic world, which is a barter economy, what would be useful and what would not be useful?” he said, with a therapist being “incredibly useful. Everybody whose left is hurting, everybody.”
“The way Catherine O’Hara’s character integrates with some of the other people in the story, including a character that has been referenced in the games but never seen before, it’s really cool and it also gives us the chance to see what people tell their therapists,” Mazin continued. “You think they always tell their therapists the truth, but what are the parts they don’t tell the therapist? That’s where it gets interesting.”
Druckmann also spoke about how long he sees the show going, with Part II of the game being too large to adapt entirely in a second season and a third or even a fourth season expected.
“We like to work with an ending in mind so we know the final destination, we know where the story ends and we know some of the stops along the way. And we knew what would be a good breaking point for this season and then we got into the details and we figured out it’s seven episodes. That’s how much this story requires,” he explained. “So while we know where we’re going, I couldn’t tell you at this point until we get back in the writers room how many seasons or how many episodes that will take. That’s what we’re going to figure out next, if we get to do it again.”
The Last of Us season two premieres April 13 on HBO and Max.