HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’ Showrunner Says Abby Revealed Early So Her “Mystery” Would Not Confuse Audiences
While the decision by HBO’s The Last of Us to open its second season with the immediate introduction of new antagonist Abby Anderson may have come as a bit of a headscratcher to those who played the original games, showrunner Craig Mazin has revealed that this timeline shuffle was done so as not to confuse those who have not.
As seen in the recent return of the live-action adaptation, following a brief recap of the disagreement between Joel, as played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, as portrayed by Bella Ramsey, that capped off the last season, audiences are then presented with their first glimpse of new footage: An establishing shot of Salt Lake City centered on the herd of giraffes previously encountered by the duo upon their arrival at the local Firefly headquarters.
From there, the shot cuts to neither of the two, but rather Abby, brought to life on the small screen by Kaitlyn Dever, who can be seen watching the herd from a distance while a handful of her fellow Fireflies lay to rest those who were killed by Joel after he discovered their lethal methodology for extracting a Cordycept cure from Ellie’s blood – including the doctor who was set to perform the procedure, her father, Dr. Jerry Anderson.
Silently listening on as the group discusses what to do next, Abby eventually makes herself known and takes charge of the conversation, putting an end to the debate by declaring that regardless of what they wanted or thought, they would do nothing until they took revenge upon Joel.
But in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us II, rather than having her motivations and identity confirmed right away, Abby’s role in the story instead starts out as a total mystery.
First seen being rescued from a Cordycept horde by Joel and his brother Tommy, Abby proceeds to spend the next few hours opening up to them and building a connection, in doing so fostering the idea that she was nothing more than a new ally in their fight to keep humanity alive.
Ultimately, her true identity is revealed when, under the guise of seeking shelter from a sudden storm, she lures Joel and Tommy into an ambush and proceeds to use the former for putting practice.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ on the curious decision to remove this mystery element from both Abby’s character and the HBO series as a whole, the aforementioned Mazin explained that it initially came about after he and his co-showrunner, original series creator Neil Druckmann, “really thought quite a bit about how to introduce her.”
“When you meet her in the game, you don’t know who she is, you don’t know why she’s there, why she’s doing what she’s doing,” he explained. “It’s all a mystery. But what you do is play as her.”
“So, right off the bat, part of your job is to keep yourself [the player] and Abby alive, which invests you instantly in her wellbeing and her point of view,” the Chernobyl creator continued. “That’s kind of how we function as humans: instant empathy there. That’s not something we have the advantage of in a television show. We thought it was important not to hold back those cards, to let you know who she was, what had happened, and what she wanted at a bare minimum. So we could – on some level – at least connect with her to the extent that we aren’t confused by who she was.”
Closing out his thoughts on the topic, Mazin ultimately asserted, “If mystery goes too far, it becomes confusion. So we made that decision. I think it was the right one to make.”
More About:TV Shows