How The Last Of Us Season 2 Makes Abby More Relatable Without The “Empathetic Shortcut” Of Interactivity Explained By Writers

Warning: SPOILERS for The Last of Us season 2, episode 1.

Then there’s Abby. Abby Anderson is a character first introduced in The Last of Us Part II, and is shown in the TV show to be on a mission to kill Joel. Abby was a controversial, often hated, character in the game, which also forced players to experience much of the story through her point of view. The question of how Abby’s story will be adapted to the screen has lingered in the minds of many The Last of Us fans since the first season was announced, and now those questions will soon be answered.

ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan interviewed Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross about their work shepherding The Last of Us season 2 to completion. Druckmann and Gross co-wrote The Last of Us Part II game, so their touch has likely helped ensure that the show’s new zombie types, Ellie/Joel relationship, and more stay authentic to the spirit in which they were created. The pair explained how they brought game elements from game to screen and broke down the Abby of it all.

Neil Druckmann & Halley Gross Talk Fleshing Out The Last Of Us Game World For The TV Show

The Pair Worked To “Interrogate Every Moment”

But, Druckman said, “The correct approach was, like, ‘Let’s adapt it [using] the same process that we applied for season one, where we interrogate every moment and try to figure out what can work exactly as-is, what needs some changes, [and] what requires some new material. And that journey leads us to some really interesting places. Sometimes it might lead us to something like the Bill and Frank episode, and if we get there organically and that’s where the story wants to go, we will go there.”

For show fans hoping to get that same Bill and Frank feeling, however, Druckmann had this to say: “I don’t know if we have anything exactly one-to-one like the Bill and Frank episode this season, but we have a lot of moments where those side explorations lead to beautiful expansions of The Last of Us.”

The Last of Us season 2 premiere contained one of those expansions when it came to the character of Eugene, who was made known to game players primarily by environmental storytelling. “The library where you find Eugene’s story in the game was one of my favorite parts,” Halley Gross said.

The Writers Worked To Make Abby More Empathetic

They Used “The Drama Of TV To Get You To Sympathize With Her”

Abby borderline steals the show in The Last of Us Part II game, and many players did not like or expect that when the game was released in 2020. The game essentially had players experience the story as Ellie for much of its runtime, then switched them over to Abby, making their stories feel very separate.

Thanks to the nature of television, Druckmann teased that Abby and Ellie’s stories may be more interwoven. “I can’t say much other than to say we couldn’t do much of that in the game,” he said, “We have the option to do that. Now, whether we chose to do it or not… you have to watch the season."

But Abby is a much more sympathetic character in The Last of Us Part II once you have played her story, which Druckmann knows: “When you play as a character, there’s a certain empathetic connection that is made because you are them. You’re seeing the world through their eyes … we don’t have that empathetic shortcut that we have in the interactive medium, but we have drama, we have context, [and] we have backstory.”

Abby actor Kaitlyn Dever was warned, at least on some level, about how her character might be received. “We were very open with Kaitlyn about what this role is, and what it isn’t, and the kind of reaction you might see from fans,” Druckmann said. “Luckily,” the game maker continued, “we haven’t seen any of that … Fans have mostly been very supportive, and I’m hopeful that people will see the complexity of this character. Kaitlyn is so good. She brings such a ferocity and yet vulnerability to this character.”

Druckmann Explains How They Discovered Where The Last Of Us Season 2 Ends

Plus, Will The Games’ Infamous Rat King Make An Appearance?

The Last of Us Part II is a massive game–so massive that adapting it into a single season of television would be a monumental task. Thankfully, that’s not what the showrunners chose to do. Druckmann explained the process: “We start with the ending of game two. That is the ending of the show. We worked our way backwards and we broke the whole story as if we were just going to make one giant season. [We asked], ‘What would that look like? What are all the major beats that would have to happen?’”

When quickly asked about their gut responses to the phrase ‘Rat King’ (a boss from The Last of Us Part II), Halley Gross chimed in with “Oh, no,” while Druckmann said, “I would say you can’t tell the story without it.” Get your incendiary shells ready.

Source: ScreenRant Plus