Kaitlyn Dever cast as Abby in second season of HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

HBO’s The Last of Us just cast a major character for the Emmy-winning show’s second season.

Booksmart‘s Kaitlyn Dever will be playing Abby, familiar to players of The Last of Us Part II, the follow-up to the blockbuster video game on which the show is based.

HBO calls Abby “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved.”

In the announcement, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the acclaimed show’s co-creators as well as co-writers/directors, said, “Our casting process for season two has been identical to season one: we look for world-class actors who embody the souls of the characters in the source material.”

Druckmann is the co-creator of the hit Naughty Dog game series.

Perhaps referring to the physical differences between Dever and the muscular Abby in the game, they add, “Nothing matters more than talent, and we’re thrilled to have an acclaimed performer like Kaitlyn join Pedro [Pascal], Bella [Ramsey] and the rest of our family.”

Pascal plays Joel, who’s charged with ferrying Ramsey’s Ellie across a United States that has been ravaged by a veritable zombie apocalypse.

The Last of Us‘ second season is said to be adapted from the second game: Set five years after the original, that installment saw Joel taking a back seat as gamers played both Ellie and Abby, who is in the middle of a fight between her militia members and members of a cult.

It’s not known how closely the second season will hew to the game’s sequel, though viewers of The Last of Us know the show’s heralded first season included Ellie taking bloody and fiery revenge against a religious cannibal cult in Wyoming.

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