After the success of The Last of Us on PlayStation, it was obvious that the next step would be for it to evolve into something else. Sadly, when creator Neil Druckmann was shopping the idea around, the movie ended up in “developmental Hell” until HBO grabbed it for the show. After seeing what the show has produced, it’s a good thing.
The Last of Us is better as a show than a movie. There’s too much character development for this to be a movie. It's one of the reasons people weren't too happy with Marvel Studios' Eternals. Too many storylines to tell in less than three hours. However, The Last of Us could work if the first game was split into three movies. Unless something happens, we may never know if it could have worked.
During the official podcast for HBO’s The Last of Us, co-creator Neil Druckman, producer Craig Mazin, and Troy Baker (voice of Joel in The Last of Us game) discuss the first episode. Among the topics was who Abby is and the actress who plays her, Kaitlyn Dever.
After discussing how easy it was to choose her, Druckman points out that she was in the running to be cast as Ellie. Unfortunately, when HBO started developing the show, Druckmann said Dever aged out of the role. He continued by praising her as an actress and saying, “But when we thought about this season, and her name came up, and we started discussing it, Kaitlyn is so talented, and I had the privilege of working with her a little bit on Uncharted 4, the video game. It was very easy to close your eyes and see her as this character.”
Looking back at this, it’s a gift and a curse for Kaitlyn Dever. The curse is that playing Ellie in The Last of Us movie could have skyrocketed her career to new heights. It's easy to say that because Dever has shone in everything she's been in. The gift is that she still gets to play a character on the show and has an opportunity to portray one of the most controversial characters in video game history.
During the podcast, Druckmann said, “It didn’t take much imagination to view her (Dever) in this role.” However, Kaitlyn Dever being smaller than video game Abby had to be discussed. Craig Mazin comments that they didn’t feel “obliged to fully represent the body shape that Abby has.” He continued on making a great point by explaining the difference between creating a show and a video game character.
Mazin mentions that playing as Abby was supposed to be a different experience than when you’re Ellie. He says that since this isn’t gameplay, “the key was to find a certain ferocity and a relentlessness, and I think you’ll see some of that as the season goes on and certainly as we go forward with the show.”
We’ve only gotten a taste of who Abby is on the show, and it’s already intense. If you’ve played the game, you saw what was changed. So far, it adds to the team’s smart decision of casting Kaitlyn Dever. She’s shown that she’s more than capable of displaying the intensity and emotion that comes with being Abby. This writer can’t wait to see how fans react to what’s going on with her and why she’s so focused on taking out Joel. If there’s any doubt about Dever being picked, it will disappear after that.
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