The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 1, «Future Days,» which premiered Sunday, April 13 on HBO.
As part of The Last of Us‘ adaptation process, fans got to learn Abby’s motives earlier than expected.
Following the acclaimed HBO show’s Season 2 premiere, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin spoke with The Verge about the opening scene and why they felt it necessary to establish Abby’s Firefly status from the beginning. Much of this, according to Druckmann, came down to the challenges of video game vs. television narrative progression, stating, «When we put out The Last of Us Part II, you have the entire story and you decide how you want to pace it out. Here we’re putting out episodes week by week, which are roughly an hour long. If we were to wait as much as we did in the game to reveal certain things, our viewers might have to wait a very, very long time — longer than we were comfortable with.»
Additionally, because video games are an interactive medium, Druckmann felt it was essential to give players some information about Abby and her friends to make up for a lack of extended gameplay that would help players inhabit her perspective. In Part II, Abby’s motives were withheld from the player for much of Ellie’s campaign, only revealing themselves once the game made a surprise, and controversial, perspective shift to Abby’s POV in its back half.
We don’t have that in the show.
«We were able to keep certain things a mystery for much longer, because you were playing as Abby, trying to keep her alive, fighting the infected. We don’t have that in the show,» he continued, adding, «So we needed something else — through drama, through backstory — to get you to sympathize with her. That’s where we pulled certain events up in the story, in terms of when we reveal them.»
Other adaptation changes involved making Abby less physically muscular than her game counterpart, with Druckmann citing the show’s focus on drama over constant action as a primary reason. Played by Kaitlyn Dever — who originally auditioned for the part of Ellie — season 2’s premiere saw Abby and compatriots Mel, Owen, Manny, and Nora bury the Fireflies Joel killed in season 1’s finale before plotting to go after him as revenge. Despite stopping to regroup with militia leader Isaac (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his role from the game), the episode ended with them finally locating the Jackson community five years later, though much of its story focused on Joel and Ellie’s newfound estrangement in the present day.
Some Fans Are Split on The Last of Us Season 2
Reactions to Part II‘s story were infamously divisive, with Abby voice actor Laura Bailey receiving death threats over her performance as the game’s antagonist. Nonetheless, Part II went on to win Game of the Year, while ratings for The Last of Us season 2’s premiere increased by 13% compared to that of season 1’s premiere.
New The Last of Us episodes stream Sundays on HBO and Max.
