Who is Abby in The Last of Us season 2? Actor, character and backstory explained

Fans familiar with the source material will be both excited and wary about the introduction of the character to the story, while fans new to The Last of Us world might be wondering just who she is and what her connection to Joel is.

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Want to know more about the character and her backstory? Read on for everything you need to know about Abby in The Last of Us.

But before we continue, be aware that there are major spoilers for both The Last of Us Part 1, Part 2 and the TV series, so stop reading if you want to experience the story with fresh eyes!

Who is Abby in The Last of Us season 2?

Abby is introduced in the season 2 premiere as someone who's out for revenge.

She is a member of the remaining Fireflies, which also includes Manny (Danny Ramirez), Mel (Ariela Barer), Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and Owen (Spencer Lord), and is still grieving the loss of her loved ones who met an unpleasant fate when Joel rescued Ellie after finding out what they planned to do to her.

Since that discovery, she and her group have been attempting to track down Joel in order to seek revenge.

This marks a departure from the original video game, in which Abby's intentions remain unknown until she kills another character.

Speaking about the major change to the story, showrunner Craig Mazin exclusively told RadioTimes.com: "The first question I remember asking Neil [Druckmann] was, 'Why did you do it that way?' Because I'm always trying to get under the hood of his intentions there."

Mazin continued: "He said he felt like there was something about the mechanics of playing, and I agree, as a fan of the game and video games in general, where when you become someone you have an instant connection to them. And it can be very confusing to be someone and then also to do things that you wish the person wouldn't be doing

"But in television, we don't have that. We don't have that no one can say, 'Oh, when I was Joel or when I was Abby'. We watched them and our feeling was in this medium, it was important to give people enough context, because we weren't [going to do] a long stretch where there would just be Abby, because the game was saying you're Abby now, you can't just press triangle and be Joel or Ellie, you have to be Abby for a long time. We don't have that.

"We had choices of when to bring people in and out, and so we thought it was important to situate Abby."

Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference ahead of season 2, Druckmann explained why the character was introduced so early in the show.

"In the game, you play as Abby, so you immediately form an empathic connection with her, because you’re surviving as her, you’re running through the snow, you’re fighting infected," he said.

He continued: "And we can withhold certain things and make it a mystery that will be revealed later in the story. We couldn’t do that in the show because you’re not playing as her."

Speaking about Abby's connection to Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Druckmann added: "Where that revelation happens in the game, if we were to stick to a very similar timeline, viewers would have to wait a very, very long time to get that context.

"It would probably get spoiled to them between seasons, and we didn’t want that, so it felt appropriate for those reasons to move that up and give the viewer that context right off the bat."

Who was Abby's father in The Last of Us?

Abby's father was a Firefly surgeon at the hospital that Joel stormed at the end of season 1.

Who is Abby in The Last of Us video game?

Abby is one of the two playable characters in The Last of Us 2, alongside Ellie.

Her story runs parallel to Ellie’s, and offers a different perspective of events in the wake of Joel’s actions in the first game.

After losing her father and the disbandment of the Fireflies, she travels to Seattle to join the Washington Liberation Front, in the hopes of finding purpose in her life once more.

In the years that follow, Abby becomes hardened and an adept fighter, making her a formidable foe.

After confronting her literal and metaphorical demons, Abby’s belief system is challenged, and she finds her world in turmoil once more when she meets Yev and Yara, prompting Abby to reinvent herself and finally find peace.

Who plays Abby in The Last of Us season 2?

Kaitlyn Dever plays Abby in The Last of Us TV show.

This was confirmed along with other cast members for season 2. Dever has a previous connection to Naughty Dog, as she voiced Cassie Drake and provided motion capture for Uncharted 3: A Thief’s End.

Dever has also starred in Olivia Wilde’s 2019 comedy film Booksmart as Amy Antsler. She played Eve Baxter in the sitcom Last Man Standing for nine seasons, too.

She also featured in Annapurna Interactive’s Open Roads, an interactive movie mystery-thriller game that sees a mother and daughter face their troubled paths together.

It was announced that Dever, who was originally considered for the role of Ellie (which went to Bella Ramsey), would be joining the cast last year.

Preempting any backlash from fans about the star playing the role, especially when it comes to how the character looks, Neil Druckmann said: "We value performance over anything else.

"We need someone to really capture the essence of those characters.... We don't value as much, 'Do they look exactly like the character with their eyebrows or their nose or their body?' Whatever it is.

"It's not nowhere on the priority list, but it's below a bunch of other things that we consider."

Who plays Abby in The Last of Us video game?

Laura Bailey plays Abby in The Last of Us Part 2.

Bailey is a voice acting veteran, and has been featured in innumerable amounts of games, anime and animations.

Bailey also voiced a few smaller characters in the original Last of Us, and reprised her role as a nurse in the HBO TV adaptation.

Other video game highlights include Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 2, Kait Diaz in Gears 5, Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4 and Serana in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

You may also have heard her playing Trunkz in Dragon Ball Z, Tressa and Serena in Winx Club or as Gwen Stacy, Ghost-Spider and Black Widow in Disney XD’s Spider-Man.

What is Abby’s backstory in The Last of Us video game?

Born shortly after the cordyceps infection, Abby Anderson has lived her entire life during the apocalypse.

Abby lived with her father Jerry Anderson – the head surgeon and co-leader of the Fireflies – in Salt Lake City, as he worked to try and find a vaccine for the cordyceps fungal infection.

At the end of The Last of Us, Joel discovers the Fireflies' intention to kill Ellie in order to find out how she is immune to the cordyceps fungus, and in a rage, breaks back into the hospital to rescue her, killing many in his path.

One of the victims was Jerry Anderson. Abby and Jerry were very close, and his death ruins her.

After suffering such heartbreak, Abby vows vengeance, and seeks to track Joel down and kill him – making her way to Seattle to join the Washington Liberation Front.

The Last of Us season 1 is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW with an Entertainment Membership. Season 2 is released weekly.

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