Backlash from gamers has also prompted the actress to seek extra security
Kaitlyn Dever, who played the antagonist in The Last of Us Part II video game, will be introduced in Season Two of The Last of Us television series and some gamers aren’t happy about it. In the game, players control Abby, a soldier caught in the throes of a post-apocalyptic militia and cultish religion who butts heads with co-lead Ellie, leading to ghastly consequences. Dever told Screen Rant it’s difficult to ignore online criticism.
“It’s hard not to stop myself from looking at it every once in a while, especially going into this, for sure,” Dever said. “And I want to do this character justice and make the fans proud by bringing her to life in this kind of way.”
The second season, which follows Pedro Pascal‘s Joel and Bella Ramsey‘s Ellie after they have given up the search for a society-saving miracle in a post-apocalyptic U.S., picks up five years later with Dever’s Abby. Joel and Ellie have settled in Jackson, Wyoming, and run into Abby who’s searching for the duo after her father’s death.
In the video game, Abby pits herself against Joel, which also angered online gamers. Backlash from gamers has also prompted the actress to seek extra security, co-star Isabela Merced said in an August podcast episode of Happy Sad Confused. “There’s so many strange people in this world because there are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person,” Merced said.
Other cast members in Season Two include Gabriel Luna and Young Mazino. With the second installment of the series arriving April 13, Dever’s main focus is an accurate portrayal of her character.
“But my main focus was just the collaboration between [Showrunners] Neil and Craig, 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,” she continued. “I wanted to make sure that that was what I was focusing most of my energy on.”
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