With an indeterminate amount of time between the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 of The Last of Us, fans have taken to speculating about what they can expect in the upcoming season. One popular topic of speculation concerns Abby, a major player in The Last of Us Part II, and one of the showrunners just cleared up some misinformation that's been making the rounds on the internet.
Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neal Druckmann have already confirmed that season 2 will begin to adapt the events of The Last of Us Part II and that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return as Joel and Ellie. What they haven’t been able to confirm is who will play Abby, and since she has such a big role in the second game, fans assume she’ll have an equally large role to play in the show. Voiced in the game by Laura Bailey, Abby is the daughter of the doctor that was about to operate on Ellie at the end of the first game. Joel interrupts the operation and kills the doctor, saving Ellie's life and stopping the Fireflies from getting the necessary material from Ellie to begin working on a cure. In The Last of Us Part II, the consequences of Joel’s actions catch up to him in the form of Abby.
As reported by The Direct, Mazin recently cleared up some rumors regarding Abby. While appearing on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Mazin was asked to address rumors surrounding Abby’s casting. Fans have been speculating that actors like The Mandalorian’s Katy O’Brian or The Wilds’ Shannon Berry were currently being considered for the role. Mazin had a short but definitive answer when asked if this was true. "No," he said. "No one has been cast."
During the episode, Mazin was also asked about a popular fan theory that claimed Abby had already shown up in season 1 of The Last of Us. The theory is centered around the silhouette of a Firefly in the hospital during the season 1 finale who has her hair braided; in The Last of Us Part II, Abby wears her hair in a braid. Mazin shut down that theory just as quickly as he did the rumors about Abby’s casting, saying, "I can confirm that she was not. That was just one of the Fireflies that happened to have a ponytail. A lot of people have ponytails, so that was not Abby."
With Mazin confirming that fans have yet to catch a glimpse of Abby in the TV show and denying that anyone is currently in the process of being cast as Abby, the question of who will play Abby in season 2 doesn’t have an answer. Both Berry and O’Brian could feasibly take on the part; O’Brian’s connection to Pascal through The Mandalorian could provide a clear path to her involvement with The Last of Us. For now, fans will unfortunately have to wait until Mazin and Druckmann have a clear answer about who will play Abby.
Season 1 of The Last of Us is available to stream now on Max.
Source: The Direct