The Last of Us Season 2 Trailer Spotlights the Riskiest Element From the Game
Abby’s taking center stage this April.
Video game TV adaptations are no longer a risk — now they’re an entire subgenre. Fallout, Arcane, and Castlevania have all attained acclaim despite being adaptations of popular video games — a label that would have spelled doom only a handful of years ago. The best example of this is HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us, an already cinematic game that only got expanded with its move to live-action, transforming the story from an AAA game to prestige TV.
Now it has proven itself, The Last of Us is returning for a second season. However, the series is still innovating and taking cues from the initial game — including one of its biggest swings. It’s all evident in the new trailer for the series, premiering in April. Check out the trailer below:
Unlike the previous teasers we’ve seen for this season, this one puts us in the perspective of Abby, the new character played by Kaitlyn Dever. She plays a complicated role in the game, as she begins as a dual antagonist before becoming very much the villain of the piece. (Without spoiling anything, she does something unforgivable to many The Last of Us fans.) But because the player has played as Abby, they are sympathetic to her and her cause, even when she’s positioned against Ellie.
This trailer reveals that this part of the game will be replicated in Season 2 of the series. Because Season 2 won’t cover the entirety of the second game, there was a debate over how the show would tackle the division of the storyline between Abby and Ellie. Now, we know the split protagonist format will remain for Season 2.
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last of Us Season 2.
The Last of Us Season 2 also now has a release window: April, only a handful of months away, so we’ll find out exactly how big of a role Abby plays soon. But this trailer reveals fans will get to know her just as well as they did in the game. In fact, if the show continues the pattern of adding more backstory to characters, it’s likely we’ll learn even more about her, making her heelturn all the more heartbreaking.
Those who have played The Last of Us Part II may know what’s lying ahead for these characters but just how we’ll get there — and how much will be added — will remain a mystery until spring. But if this trailer is anything to go by, we’ll get another pitch-perfect screen adaptation, risky techniques and all.
