Abby doesn't need to be as fit as in the game in The Last of Us Season 2

In the upcoming second season of The Last of Us, actress Kaitlyn Dever plays Abby, and although Abby in the game The Last of Us 2 is known for her muscular physique, Dever did not need to gain muscle for this role.

Neil Druckmann, the showrunner for The Last of Us, pointed out in an interview that Abby in the game can move freely in the game world like Joel, "she has the strength to deal with some things." This is different from Ellie, who is more petite and light. However, in the series, this "brute force"-like ability to move is not so critical to Abby.

“It’s not about intense, violent action all the time,” Druckmann explained. “It’s more about the story. I’m not saying there’s no action, but it’s just a different emphasis and a different approach,” he continued, adding, “[Dever] has that spirit of the game character.”

Druckmann also said that the production team of "The Last of Us" "valued performance the most" and prioritized capturing the "essence" of the character rather than just finding an actor who looked exactly like the game character.

"I always like this idea that, like in the first season, you're constantly challenged," Druckmann further said. "When you try to pick a hero, it's hard because we're all ordinary people, not heroes. Behind every heroic act, there's another party suffering, and they may have reason to see you as a villain. When you look at Caitlin, there's something in her eyes that you can relate to no matter what she's going through."

“It was important to find an actor who could connect with us the same way we connected with Bella Ramsey [who plays Ellie],” Druckmann continued, adding that it was “difficult for the team to find someone as amazing as Caitlin” to play Abby.

Meanwhile, The Last of Us co-showrunner Craig Mazin believes that season 2 will provide a "great opportunity... to go in-depth with a character who is perhaps more physically fragile than the Abby in the games, but who is much more mentally strong... and then the question becomes, 'Where does that strength come from and how does it manifest?' That's something we're going to explore now and going to explore later."

Elsewhere in the same interview, The Last of Us showrunners hinted at how the team will structure The Last of Us Part II for television.

"One of the big themes of the second game is perspective, and how one person's hero might be another's villain, and vice versa. It's weird to talk about a story whose structure might spoil it," Druckmann said. "I'm not even sure it's worth mentioning how we handled it, because I think it's going to be fun for people who are familiar with the games to see how we approached this challenge in the show. I can only say that we thought about it and tried different approaches. There will be some changes in the plot."

Mazin added: "We're definitely going to treat the timeline the same way the book does, but like Neil said, we're going to treat it in a way that we think is right for the show... When I say 'treat', I mean we've scientifically considered what we think is the most impactful way from a narrative perspective."

This "treatment" will also include the introduction of new characters, such as Catherine O'Hara's character who has not yet been officially named. In addition, there is a character who does not directly appear in the game but will appear in the second season of The Last of Us.

"There's an important character that's been mentioned a lot in the game, similar to how we treated Frank (played by Murray Bartlett) in the first season, who will appear in this season," the showrunners revealed. "The casting is very, very cool, and hopefully we'll be able to announce it soon."

The second season of The Last of Us is scheduled to premiere in April and will consist of seven episodes, one of which is "quite long."

“We’re telling a much bigger story than we did in season 1, and it’s much more plot-rich and much more challenging to produce, but honestly, we want every episode to feel like a big movie,” Mazin said in June.

The story of The Last of Us Part II will not be fully presented in Season 2, and subsequent seasons are expected to complete the entire narrative.