Neil Druckmann Posts Abby Teaser For ‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2

There may have been a few confused people last night, as The Last of Us did not have an episode 10 airing on HBO, with the unusual 9 episode season finishing last weekend.

But co-showrunner Neil Druckmann is getting fans excited for what’s next all the same, as he posted a teaser image for Abby, a key character in Part 2 of the game and now, season 2 of the show, where it’s already been confirmed the second season will start adapting the second game, even if it takes more than one season to do so.

What is this teaser? I looked into it, and actually this is an Outbreak Day poster from 5 years ago, before Abby was even revealed in Part 2. I’m looking at an old reddit thread speculating that the muscular arm is Joel, as this is back before we even knew Abby existed. The other poster is Ellie covered in plants, which ended up representing the tattoo she gets over her bite area.

So no, this is not new art that was mocked up to tease season 2 of the show. But naturally, it does get everyone thinking about Abby and who will be cast in the role. Spoilers for Part 2 of the game and season 2 of the show follow.

Given the source of these images, I would not read too much into the hammer. I’ve seen some speculation that Druckmann posting this image means that Abby will now beat Joel to death with a hammer instead of the golf club like she did in the game, but since this is such old artwork, I don’t think that can be a takeaway.

I will say, however, that posting the muscled Abby arm image implies to me that they are indeed going to look for an actress with her immense physicality. That could mean picking someone who is already as jacked as Abby is in the game, or instead casting an actress who will have to train like her life depended on it to bulk up for the part.

As ever, the singular name that keeps coming up with Shannon Berry, the actress from The Wilds who looks like Abby and is followed by Neil Druckmann on Instagram. But I’ve seen no further recent developments about her potential casting, and fan casting predictions usually end up being wrong in cases like this. But who knows.

We have ruled out at least one potential, jacked actress for the part. The Mandalorian/Ant-Man actress Katy O’Brian seemed to indicate she could not get an audition for The Last of Us and that the role was already cast. O’Brian is probably even more swole than Abby, and with a pair of high profile recent roles, seemed like a good candidate, minus perhaps her age, which is about a decade older than Abby is supposed to be.

If Abby really is as huge as she is in the game, I am wondering how that’s handled with how tiny the 5’1” Bella Ramsey is, who may be “aged up” for season 2 (she’s already nineteen) but she’s sure not getting any bigger. But she’s supposed to pose a threat to Abby and be a worthy adversary all the same. So we’ll see how that’s handled.

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