Abby Anderson is one of the most divisive and definitely interesting characters in the The Last Of Us mythos. Naughty Dog has seen it fit to make players both see her kill characters you love, and then make you play as her. And now, we know who will be playing her on-screen on HBO.
As shared by the official HBO Max Twitter account, 27 year old Kaitlyn Dever, who has been acting since she was 13, has been given the role. Her breakout role was as Loretta McCready in the FX show Justified, and she has slowly made her way up in her career to be the lead star of her most recent project, the Hulu original sci-fi horror film No One Will Save You, which just debuted last year.
As you can imagine, she’s racked up quite the filmography already. In fact, she did motion capture for Nathan Drake’s daughter Cassie in Uncharted 4: At Thief’s End.
Kaitlyn’s casting has already received some interesting reactions online, from the people who should have a say in the matter, namely, the people who played her. Laura Bailey, who was Abby’s voice actor, congratulated Kaitlyn on Twitter, saying:
“Huge congrats, Kaitlyn! So excited to see Abby’s evolution in your performance! Let me know if you want a workout buddy. “
In the meantime, bodybuilder and cosplayer Claire Max, shared a lengthier thread talking about how Kaitlyn would have to adjust to play Abby. Before we get to that, here’s your reminder that Claire did this impressively physique-accurate Abby cosplay, so she knows all about duplicating Abby’s likeness:
Here’s what Claire said about the casting:
“I think she’ll be amazing – no mistakes have been made thus far with the casting on this show.
Do I wish she was jacked? Yeah; of course. But I recognize that there are very few actresses with that body type AND the acting chops required for this role.
She has about a year apparently until they start filming. She could definitely bulk up a little bit in that time, but not to Abby levels. My theory is they will either have this version of Abby be more tactical and less brute strength, or create more bulk with her wardrobe.
They could certainly go reverse Steve Rogers and CGI her face onto a more jacked body double. But I really doubt they’ll go that route based on the way they’re treating this show.”
I’m sure you don’t need reminding that the production team behind the HBO The Last Of Us show have faced criticism for their casting, curiously more for their women characters and actors than for the men.
Unfortunately for those critics, actors like Bella Ramsey and Melanie Lynskey demonstrated you don’t have to look like the video game character exactly, and you don’t even need to have come from the video game at all, to turn in memorable performances and become icons of the franchise in their own right.
Kaitlyn has some huge shoulders to fill, and I don’t just mean in terms of centimeters. I’m sure the show’s fans are looking forward to seeing her live up to the challenge of this character.
