The first season of The Last of Us was a bona fide TV phenomenon—a video game adaptation that defied doubters by winning over both existing fans and those with no prior knowledge of it, and turning Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal into superstars overnight. Now, another Hollywood insider is joining their ranks for the show’s second installment, and taking her career to a whole new level: Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever.
The 28-year-old actor, who also delivered an extraordinary performance in Netflix’s Unbelievable in 2019, was Emmy-nominated for her turn in 2021’s Dopesick and can currently be seen in Apple Cider Vinegar, is set to play Abby, a ruthless soldier who’s part of a Seattle-based militia group. In The Last of Us Part II, the video game sequel on which the series’s second season will be based, Abby, alongside the first installment’s lead, Ellie, is one of the two playable central characters.
Photo: Getty Images
Season one ends with Joel (Pascal) rescuing Ellie (Ramsey) from the surgeons who’d been preparing to operate on her in hopes of developing a cure for cordyceps, and then lying to her about what happened. The logline for season two reads: “Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.” If the show follows the game closely, it should see Joel and Ellie living together in Wyoming at this point. Then, while on patrol, the former comes across a stranger named Abby and saves her from an infected horde. She’s part of the Washington Liberation Front and, unbeknownst to him, on a quest for revenge that will have a profound impact on them all.
Per Deadline, Dever emerged as the frontrunner for the part shortly after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike in November 2023, and closed the deal soon after. “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,” series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann told the publication. “Nothing matters more than talent, and we’re thrilled to have an acclaimed performer like Kaitlyn join Pedro, Bella and the rest of our family.”
