“The Last of Us” Season 2 Will Introduce Abby’s Backstory Much Sooner Than The Game

The long wait is almost over. “The Last of Us” Season 2 premieres on Max on April 13, 2025, bringing along with it a five year jump between seasons and opening during winter. The second season will only adapt part of The Last of Us Part II video game, which introduces the character of Abby, played by Kaitlyn […] The post “The Last of Us” Season 2 Will Introduce Abby’s Backstory Much Sooner Than The Game appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Mar 27, 2025 - 17:50

“The Last of Us” Season 2 Will Introduce Abby’s Backstory Much Sooner Than The Game

The long wait is almost over. “The Last of Us” Season 2 premieres on Max on April 13, 2025, bringing along with it a five year jump between seasons and opening during winter.

The second season will only adapt part of The Last of Us Part II video game, which introduces the character of Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever (No One Will Save You) in the show. Without wading into spoilers, it’s safe to say that Abby’s actions in the game mark her as controversial. Her arc in the series is tied directly to the events of the show’s first season finale, but, as season one demonstrated, don’t expect an exact retread of the game. It’s only in the game’s back half that Abby’s backstory gets revealed, but the show will chart a different course.

Abby’s backstory, at least in part, will get introduced much sooner than it does in the game. During a press conference, series co-creator-writer Neil Druckmann explained why.

“There are two reasons why we change certain contexts or move certain things up in the story,” he detailed. “One of which, in the game, you start the game, you play as Abby, so you immediately form an empathic connection with her because you’re surviving as her. You’re running through the snow, you’re fighting infected, and we can withhold certain things and make it a mystery that will be revealed later in the story. We couldn’t do that in the show because you’re not playing as her, so we need other tools. That context gave us that shortcut.”

Druckmann continued, “Something similar happened in season one. The game starts with you playing as Sarah, and we didn’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting for you to care about Sarah because you’re playing as her; you’re experiencing the outbreak as her. In the show, we had to spend quite a bit of time to achieve something similar.

“Another reason is, you know, where that revelation happens in the game. If we were to stick to a very similar timeline, viewers would have to wait a very, very long time to get that context. You would probably get spoiled between seasons, and we didn’t want that. So, it felt appropriate for those reasons to move that up and give viewers that context right off the bat.”

Kaitlyn Dever in snow

Kaitlyn Dever expressed excitement over joining the series, but the actor also teased a grueling physical season ahead for the cast. “We were in an actual blizzard. We were in the snow, and I was put on a tall mountain,” Dever teased of season two’s setting.

It also sounds as though we can expect Dever’s Abby to be every bit as physical as her game counterpart based on series co-creator-showrunner-director Craig Mazin‘s effusive praise for her performance. “Kaitlyn did things that I’m not sure you even should have done. I don’t know how you did them. We knew her, obviously, as an actor and what she could do – but then you meet the person, and you’re like, well, what can you actually do? What are you comfortable with? Kaitlyn just would never say no. It was amazing. When you see just how physically tremendous her performance is, it’s insane. Very grateful, we just haven’t fucked up in casting.”

While the cast and crew were tight lipped on giving away any details that may venture into spoiler territory, Mazin did confirm that we can expect another bottle episode like with season one’s standout hour, “Long, Long Time.”

Mazin teased, “One thing that Neil and I talked about was just making sure that we didn’t just say, oh, you know, like that Bill and Frank episode – people really like that. Let’s do a very special episode of The Last of Us Season Two. It just has to happen as it happens. But I will say that there is a gorgeous episode this season directed by Neil that is different; it’s not Bill and Frank, but it is, in its own way, its own thing because it needed to be. Just you wait.”

Abby poster

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