After weeks and weeks of rumors and speculation—guys, guys, Craig Mazin followed her on Instagram!—it’s official: Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) will play Abby in the second season of The Last of Us.
HBO describes Abby as “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved.” But there is more—much more—to her than that, and all of it is, well, spoilers.
Co-showrunner Craig Mazin has already been braced for impact where season two is concerned, saying, “Will there be furor? Yeah, probably. … I mean, there usually is, starting even with casting,” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The Last of Us Part II, the videogame, met with what one might diplomatically call a complicated response when it was released in 2020. Many critics loved it. Some players did not; they especially did not like a thing that happens early in the game, which is extremely a spoiler for the story (though if you have managed to avoid said spoiler so far in life, I applaud you, seriously). Mazin is clearly aware of this, and knows that a whole new group of viewers are about to get very, very upset.
What all this means for Dever’s character is, as noted, spoilers, but she may want to take a very relaxing vacation when the season actually airs. As well as starring (very charmingly) in Booksmart, Dever has appeared on Justified and Dopesick, and recently starred in the horror film No One Will Save You (pictured above).
The Last of Us is created and showrun by Mazin and Neil Druckmann. The second season begins production next month.
