Kaitlyn Dever responds to controversy over her ‘The Last of Us’ character
Actor Kaitlyn Dever has explained the way she will portray her role as a controversial character in the upcoming second series of the hit HBO apocalypse thriller The Last of Us.
Dever’s character Abby will appear as a new addition alongside protagonists Joel and Ellie, played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, respectively – but she already comes with a bit of a negative reputation from the original video game the show is based on.
As a villain figure, the actor who played Abby in The Last of Us II game received severe backlash and death threats online when it was released in 2020. This added pressure to Dever as she took over the role for television. Regarding this, she told ScreenRant: “Well, it’s hard not to see those things on the internet.”
She continued: “It’s hard not to stop myself from looking at it every once in a while, especially going into this, for sure. And I want to do this character justice and make the fans proud by bringing her to life in this kind of way.”
However, Dever added that she wanted to make the character her own: “My main focus was just the collaboration between [showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann], and making sure I was really getting to the core of who she is and what drives her and her emotional state; her anger and her frustration and her grief and all of that.”
Elsewhere, ahead of the hotly anticipated second instalment, Pascal has branded the new series as being “fucking heartbreaking,” jokingly calling writers Mazin and Druckmann “sick people”.
The Last of Us series two will be released on HBO on April 13th.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.