“The Last of Us” is taking a creative shift in the third season with plans to focus the story around Kaitlyn Dever’s character Abby…
A final scene in “The Last of Us” season 2 left fans wondering if the show was taking a different creative approach for season 3 and now the creators behind the series have confirmed those plans.
Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen “The Last of Us” season 2.
When the season ended, Abby caught up with Ellie, Dina, Tommy and Jesse after the infiltrated the WLF and killed several of Abby’s friends. Abby ultimately killed Jesse, shot Tommy and held Dina at gunpoint before firing a final shot directed at Ellie before a fade to black ended in a cliffhanger. But a moment later, the scene picked up again with a focus on Abby inside the WLF compound at what used to be the football stadium where the Seattle Seahawks call home with a graphic reading “Day 1” similar to what we saw when Ellie and Dina first arrived in town.
That led to speculation that the next season of “The Last of Us” might end up telling Abby’s story and now the creators behind the show have confirmed those plans with Kaitlyn Dever taking center stage in the lead role for the next batch of episodes.
“We just ended season two, and season three is going to be starring — spoiler alert — Kaitlyn,” ‘The Last of Us’ creator and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann said at an Emmys FYC event. “I was sure that they wouldn’t let us do this when we started adapting this, but they’ve leaned into what makes, I believe, the story special. And allowed us not only the time but the creative freedom to be able to take these swings, and I think the audience really appreciates that.”
Abby became one of the most controversial characters in season 2 after she arrived in the debut episode and set out on a mission of revenge to kill Joel after he slaughtered an entire group of the Firefly rebels including the doctor who was set to operate on Ellie in hopes of finding a cure to the Cordyceps infection. That doctor just happened to be Abby’s father.
So in the second episode of “The Last of Us” season 2, Abby finally caught up with Joel and she shot him and then viciously beat him with a golf club before stabbing him to death with Ellie watching. That led to Ellie then leading her own mission of vengeance to go after Abby and her friends, which led her to Seattle.
While Dever knew she was stepping into beloved material not only from the popularity from the show but the massive video game “The Last of Us” is based upon, she embraced her role as Abby and knew she was going to get a whole lot of reactions after her character killed Pedro Pascal’s Joel early in season 2.
“The controversy surrounding Abby was never really a concern for me, just given my first meeting with Craig [Mazin] and Neil and how wonderful they are and how talented they are,” Dever said. “Getting on set, I’ve never felt so carried on a set in my life.”
“The Last of Us” was already renewed for season 3 with the creators hinting at the show eventually running for four seasons total. Taking the third season to focus on Abby’s story seemingly confirms that timeline.
There’s no word yet when production might begin on “The Last of Us” season 3 but obviously Dever is taking center stage when filming for the show starts.
