Fans Believe ‘The Last Of Us’ Has Found Its Abby Actress For Season 2

On Friday, HBO confirmed the inevitable, that megahit The Last of Us would indeed be renewed for season 2. This comes after the largest week one to two jump in viewership in HBO history, so this was a forgone conclusion for the high-scoring, highly-viewed series.

While some fans are debating what exactly season 2 will look like, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have already been clear about it. Season 1 will indeed finish all of The Last of Us Part 1. Season 2 will start The Last of Us Part 2, the second game, without some sort of lengthy interlude in the interceding years. And Mazin has said since Part 2 is so big, it will probably need more than one season to cover.

Easily, one of the biggest questions about adapting Part 2 is the casting of Abby, who essentially has half or more of the narrative of that game, though I won’t spoil her exact role here. And fans believe they think they know who the show wants as Abby. That would be actress Shannon Berry.

My guess is you don’t know who she is. Berry’s biggest role to date was playing Dot in The Wilds, a short-lived Amazon show that ran for two seasons about kids surviving on an island, Lord of the Flies-style. As you can see, at least the facial resemblance between Berry and Abby is pretty similar.

But this is more than just fan-casting based on looks. There’s believed to be some merit to this theory as Neil Druckmann himself has fairly recently followed Shannon Berry on Instagram. Mazin hasn’t, but he barely follows anyone. As for Berry herself? She’s recently followed Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsay, Neil Druckmann and the official Last of Us account on Instagram. I mean she could just be…a big fan like the rest of us, but people believe there is some significance attached to Druckmann following her as well.

Berry is the right age. She’s 23, and Abby is supposed to be in her early twenties, just a little bit older than Ellie during the events of Part 2. Bella Ramsey is 19, though she doesn’t look it. There’s been some talk about whether Ramsey would be recast for a time jump between seasons/games, but I very much doubt that.

Of course the unspoken question is…can Berry, or any actress, get unbelievable jacked to pull off the sheer physicality of Abby, which is core to her character? Abby is famously swole, and her in-game body was based on Colleen Fotsch, a CrossFit star. But this is Hollywood, and with studio-appointed trainers, anyone can be anything, just ask Christian Bale. I was checking to see if Berry was posting from any CrossFit gyms in preparation for the potential role, but I didn’t see anything online.

Right now, all of this is just speculation based on how Berry looks and some Instagram follows. Obviously she looks the part, but if the show saw hundreds of actresses for Ellie, they may be doing the same for Abby. We’ll have to wait and see.

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