It’s no secret that The Last of Us Part 2’s story has some… divisive moments, without spoiling anything, and few names sit at the centre of those moments more than Abby. The vitriol and hatred towards the character introduced in Naughty Dog’s massive sequel was rampant even before the game launched, and remains to this day – so much so that Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Abby in HBO’s upcoming second season of The Last of Us’ TV adaptation, reportedly had to have extra security during production.
The news comes from an interview with Isabela Merced, who plays Dina, on the 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 tells host Josh Horowitz. “Just a reminder – not a real person.
“And so, you know, Kaitlyn had to be extra secured by security when it came to the filming of this. Kaitlyn’s such a cool person who just does not get fazed by things, really has her head in the right place, and also is going through a lot right now personally.”
“Give her the damn Emmy, honestly,” the Dina actress exclaimed. “I’m so excited for people to see how incredibly well Bella and Kaitlyn did on this. I’m so excited.”
HBO recently debuted the very first teaser for The Last of Us Season 2, with the show expected to premiere in 2025 on Foxtel/Binge..
The next season of HBO’s wildly-successful The Last of Us adaptation will be a shorter run than the first, clocking in at fewer episodes with just seven versus the original’s nine.
That’s according to Deadline, which exclusively reported the episode count, although it’s also claimed that a potential third season would be “significantly larger” and that at least one of the new Season 2 episodes will be quite long.
“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” series co-creator, Craig Mazin, told the outlet. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”
You can watch the full episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, where the hard-working Merced talks more about The Last of Us as well as Alien: Romulus, Madame Web and more, right here.