The Last of Us season 2 spoilers: EP on getting Abby backstory
We knew going into The Last of Us season 2 on HBO that there would understandably be some significant changes from the source material. After all, didn’t there need to be on some level?
In saying this, we are not making any sort of slam on the video game that inspired the show. Rather, we are talking here about the differences between making a game and a TV show, where there are different storytelling mechanisms at the center of everything. Within the show, you are going to actually get the backstory on Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) so much earlier than you do in the game. This may just be one example of the change that comes via an adaptation, but it is a big one.
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So why do this? Well, in a new interview per Entertainment Weekly, here is some of executive producer Neil Druckmann had to say:
“There are two reasons why we moved certain things up in the story … one of which [is] 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, 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. So we need other tools, and that context gave us that shortcut.
“If we were to stick to a very similar timeline [in the show], 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 that context right off the bat.”
Given what may very well be coming this season, let’s just say that this backstory may be essential … and that is all we are going to say on that.
Related – Be sure to get some more thoughts on The Last of Us right now, including from Pedro Pascal
What do you most want to see moving into The Last of Us season 2, especially with this Abby change in mind?
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