The Last Of Us Season 2 Is Changing Abby's Storyline In One Major Way

"The Last of Us" season 2 is approaching, and in a press conference about the hit show's sophomore season, Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, and several cast members revealed that this major new character's story takes a different path than it does in the video games. (Druckmann created the games with Naughty Dog, and this season is based on "The Last of Us Part II."

During a press conference that Looper attended about the upcoming season, the moderator, Variety's Jazz Tangcay, asked Mazin and Druckmann about Abby's trajectory in season 2 — and how it differs from the video game. "Given that the game chooses to have players meet and play as Abby without knowing any of her backstory, I was somewhat surprised when the premiere established Abbie's ties to the fireflies into Salt Lake City so immediately," Tangcay inquired. "How did you [decide on] that level of clarity as the starting point for the season?"

"We got this question like four times today," Druckmann said before providing an answer. "There are two reasons why we change certain context or move certain things up in the story. One of which, in the game, you know, you start the game, like you said in the question, 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 othertools. And that context gave us that shortcut."

As Neil Druckmann pointed out, the first season of "The Last of Us" did the same thing with Sarah, Nico Parker's character and the daughter of Pedro Pascal's Joel who we only briefly see in the pilot. In that game, you initially play as Sarah before she's killed during the outbreak of the Cordyceps infection, at which point you start playing as Joel.

"Something similar happened in season one when, you know the game, one 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," Druckmann clarified. "In the show, we had to spend quite a bit of time to achieve something similar. So that was one reason. 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 to them 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."

Even though fans of "The Last of Us" who have played the original games know what they can expect in season 2 of the series for the most part — because other narrative changes do feel likely — know Abby's basic trajectory in the season, Kaitlyn Dever has remained tight-lipped about what we can expect. When asked what it was like to join the show, Dever joked "just skip right past me" before saying she was really excited to be a part of the project.

"It was ... I was nervous, I was anxious, but also very excited," Dever said. "I've been a huge fan of this game and the show for a very long time. Yeah, but the show – the reach of this, of this world – is so, so big. The world of 'The Last of Us' is so large. And so, you can definitely, you can feel that — you know, in wardrobe fittings when you're first, you know, in prep and then finally getting on set. It still feels very big but I, yeah, it was... I felt less nervous once I got onto set just because of this wonderful group of people and being held by Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann]. It really felt like I was being cared for and taken care of in a way that I haven't ever really experienced ever before. So, it was really a thrill as a person and an actor.

Not only that, but Dever said that she actually has a personal relationship to the game herself. After praising Mazin and Druckmann's work on season 1, Dever said, "And I had become, you know, I was a fan of the game. I played – it was like a real bonding moment for me and my dad playing it together. And to have it come back around, what, like ten plus years later, it really felt like, you know, something I would always thought about, like, Ijust admired this story so much and what you did. And I, when it did come back around, yeah, it felt surreal because it really kind of felt like; oh, well, things that are meant to be in your life will happen if they're supposed to. And it just felt right. Abby felt right. It was very cool." Dever also described the season as "gripping," so buckle up for season 2 when it premieres on April 13.