Kaitlyn Dever Accidentally Ignored Neil Druckmann’s Only Advice on The Last of Us Set

Even with a source material laid out just there, The Last of Us wasn’t supposed to become a plain adaptation anyway, but the show’s new actress Kaitlyn Dever made sure she would get the best of her preparation for the role.

The HBO series’ ongoing second season opens with an introduction of Dever’s Abby, a fierce young woman seeking justice for Joel years after he killed her father.

Despite a wave of criticism towards the creators’ decision to unravel Abby’s plans right away, the actress received nothing but praise from the game’s fans — which makes a lot of sense, considering how Dever’s misuse of co-creator Neil Druckmann’s advice actually helped her build the character.

Kaitlyn Dever Played The Last of Us Before Filming the Series Despite Neil Druckmann Advising Her Not to

Even though the show does a good job following the original game’s narrative and characters, The Last of Us’ co-creator and writer Neil Druckmann, who also produced the game itself, saw the HBO show as a refreshed version of the original story.

This was the reason why the series’ production team emphasised the importance of the script and not the game itself, urging the leading cast to not play The Last of Us way too much.

However, apart from having already been familiar with the game, Kaitlyn Dever once considered reaching out to Abby’s original actress Laura Bailey, though eventually changed her mind.

“Neil Druckmann really wanted me to just focus on the scripts and not the game. He even asked me not to play the game, although it was a little too late for that, because I had already played through half of the second game, and I’d finished the first game probably twice,” the actress revealed in an interview with Lifestyle Asia.

She then added that the video game was in fact a secondary source material and all the actors prioritized the script.

“I really just focused on the scripts, the text, and creating the character from the ground up with Neil and Craig. Also, it all happened so fast that I didn’t really have the opportunity to speak with her anyway. I loved Laura’s portrayal of Abby in the game, but the team really wanted to do something fresh and different this time around”, Dever said.

What Is Next For Abby in The Last of Us, Explained (Spoiler Alert!)

Now that Ellie and Dina are finally in Seattle in the second season’s episode 4, it might not take much time for them to find Abby, with both parties ambushing each other in different locations until their ways eventually part.

However, sometime later Ellie will still want to finish what she started, later on finding Abby in California, but not killing her anyway and then returning to Jackson.

When Is The Last of Us Next Episode Coming?

The show’s season 2 episode 5 will air on Max on May 11. The remaining two episodes will be released on May 18 and May 25 respectively.