The Last of Us Season 2 was in the very early stages of coming together when the WGA strike kicked off, with showrunner Craig Mazin revealing he’d finished one script when everything shut down. Now that we’re in a post-strike world, the HBO hit is gearing up for production on its second round of heartbreaking episodes, and a new casting rumor points to an A+ actress being eyed for the role of the polarizing video game antagonist Abby Anderson: Kaitlyn mother-fluffing Dever.
The new rumor comes from The Insneider, which reports that Last Man Standing vet and No One Will Save You star Kaitlyn Dever is quite possibly the talent that Mazin brought up in August when he claimed to have found TLoU’s Abby. The actress is said to be in talks to take on the part, with negotiations unable to get worked out whenever the SAG-AFTRA strike was still ongoing. And I’m not sure I’ve ever wished so hard for a casting rumor to be true.
Why Kaitlyn Dever Would Make Perfect Sense To Play Abby
First off, it’s a matter of talent, with Dever serving up winning performances in everything she signs on for, from Justified to Book Smart to The Front Runner and everything in between. Plus, she’s certainly capable of delivering grounded and emotional performances in projects that tap into dark, disturbing, and poignant subject matter.
Look no further than Dever’s powerful work in the Netflix limited series Unbelievable to see how excellent she is at playing a stunted and scarred character caught up in a complicated situation. But let’s not forget her equally excellent portrayals in Hulu’s Dopesick or the streaming service’s horror anthology Monsterland.
Not that she can’t also tap into more light-hearted and/or comedic roles. Last year saw her taking on the lead role in the Romeo & Juliet riff Rosaline and the George Clooney/Julia Roberts rom-com Ticket to Paradise. Her A+ work in this year’s alien invasion thriller No One Will Save You will soon be followed by Taika Waititi’s sports comedy Next Goal Wins. While Abby isn’t necessarily known for her stand-up comedy routines, she’s a human being, after all, and is far from being the kind of monster that TV antagonists usually shape out to be.
Abby’s story from The Last Of Us Part II is full of spoilers that shouldn’t be discussed here, but suffice to say she’s a rounded character that deserves to be played by someone who excels at being both warm and menacing, sympathetic and murderous. And even if she’s not six feet tall and bulletproof, Dever can deliver the goods.
Kaitlyn Dever Was Nearly Cast As Ellie
Back when The Last of Us was in the early stages of development, Kaitlyn Dever was essentially the go-to actress that fans brought up when dream-casting the role of the scrappy teen survivor Ellie, regardless of age factors. She seemingly had a foot in the door by way of working with game director and TV show co-creator Neil Druckmann on the 2016 hit Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and said that she would have loved to do it around that time.
Alas, the role eventually went to Game of Thrones vet Bella Ramsey, who knocked it out of the park with their performance opposite Pedro Pascal’s Joel. As such, it’s hard to have any long-lasting regrets about Dever missing out on the role. But as far as any unresolved feelings go, maybe those can be squashed by Dever joining the show as Abby.
Here’s hoping Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann made the choice that we’re all hoping they’d make by bringing Kaitlyn Dever into Season 2, even if it’s not as Abby. (Though that would mean they’d need to create another super-important co-antagonist, which may be too much trouble.) While waiting to see where things go from here, all of Season 1 can be streamed in full with a Max subscription, and check out all the upcoming horror TV shows that are also on the way.
