The Last of Us season 2 is set to come out in 2025, with the cast expanding to include new characters. It’s now been revealed that Kaitlyn Dever, the actor playing Abby, had to get extra security on set over concerns about the infamously toxic backlash around the Last of Us Part 2's other protagonist.
Isabela Merced, who plays Dina, revealed on a recent episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast (via ScreenRant) that Dever was kept extra secure during filming to avoid any potential incidents with angry fans or other online weirdos. “There are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person. Just a reminder, not a real person,” Merced said. “And so Kaitlyn had to be extra secured by security when it came to the filming of this.”
There’s no evidence that Dever other members of the cast received any direct threats, but the makers of the HBO adaptation’s second season were apparently worried enough about possible interruptions or worse to take preemptive measures to head off any danger. That might sound ridiculous, but Abby has been a unique lightning rod for unhinged outrage within some corners of gaming culture.
To understand why we’ll have to share a few spoilers from The Last of Us Part 2. Consider this a warning if you haven’t played the game yet or don’t want to know what could happen later in the HBO version of the series.
A major plot development turns The Last of Us 2 somewhat on its head, and was so controversial when it was first discovered that some players started harassing the studio behind the game, Naughty Dog, before it was even out. While the first game starred Joel, (played by Pedro Pascal in the show), the gritty, hardened male avatar is killed early on by Abby in the sequel, and not without good reason. The shocking death plunges Ellie into her own bloody quest for revenge, leading the series into ever darker and more inhumane places.
When some fans of the first game found this out, they began sending death threats to the actors and developers. Joel’s death was treated by them as a betrayal, despite it being the story director Neil Druckmann and others wanted to tell. Things got so bad that the studio had to address the hate campaign publicly.
“You can love or hate the game and share your thoughts about it,” Druckmann wrote on Twitter at the time. “Unfortunately too many of the messages I’ve been getting are vile, hateful, & violent.” He shared screenshots of messages containing homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic, and other hateful remarks. “Hopefully covid 19 kills your whole toxic feminist studio,” read part of one of the messages.
Laura Bailey, who played Abby in the game, said the nightmarish episode taught her to keep her distance from the public. The outrage campaign included threats against her parents and even her son who was born during the game’s development. Given that history, it’s not surprising the HBO show would take extra precautions to protect the TV version of Abby.
The Last of Us still has a lot of ground to cover in season 2 though, and Druckmann and showrunner Craig Mazin have said the adaptation could run as long as four seasons. It seems plausible, even likely, that the most polarizing developments, assuming they remain in the show, won’t happen for a while yet.