THE LAST OF US Team Previews Joel and Ellie’s Estrangement, Kaitlyn Dever Joining the Series as Abby

When THE LAST OF US season 1 concluded, things were grim for Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey): The Fireflies’ plan to utilize Ellie’s immunity for a cure was actually something that would be fatal for the teen—a move Joel wouldn’t allow. He killed a number of Firefly members and rescued an unconscious Ellie from undertaking the procedure.

But when Ellie woke up, Joel hid the truth from her; instead, he said they hadn’t been able to find the cure in other immune people. As the duo made the trek back to Jackson—where Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) lived—Ellie asked Joel to swear that his story about what happened with the Fireflies was true, which he did.

Now, when season 2 kicks off on Sunday, April 13, the story picks up five years later—and things are (mysteriously) tense between the formerly tight duo.

“Obviously a lot has changed over those five years,” Ramsey told reporters at a press conference for the series. “Ellie was like 14 and now is 19. And I think in any teenager’s life that’s always the formative years, so…that definitely informed it. But there’s obviously deeper reasons for that, for their little rift. I didn’t enjoy the feeling of feeling estranged from Pedro within a scene. It wasn’t a nice feeling.”

“On a practical level, my first day on set, I feel like it was a beautiful setup by [showrunners] Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] that the first thing that I got to shoot anyway was just [Bella] and I, and in kind of an intimate setting,” Pascal added. “And there’s an incredibly painful distance between the two of them in the playing of the scene, but we still got to be on set and f— around and laugh, and stuff like that; that was incredibly comforting. That was like coming home.”

“My mindset was grateful to being back and yet at the same time, it’s this experience, more than any other I’ve had, [that] is hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel,” he continued. “In a way that isn’t very healthy. And so, I kind of feel their pain…so I suppose I was in an unhealthy mindset.”

As Joel and Ellie navigate their estrangement, the show also introduces a handful of new faces…including Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby. 

Dever, who played Ellie in a table read for TLOU when the video game franchise was initially being developed as a film, was “nervous” and “anxious, but also very excited” about finally joining the world in season 2 of the HBO series: “I’ve been a huge fan of this game and the show for a very long time.”

“I felt less nervous once I got onto set just because of this wonderful group of people and being held by Craig and Neil,” she said. “It really felt like I was being cared for and taken care of in a way that I haven’t ever really experienced before. So, it was really a thrill as a person and an actor.”

“I loved what the [showrunners] did in this first season—it was just pure magic,” she continues. “It was so wonderful. And…I was a fan of the game. It was like a real bonding moment for me and my dad playing it together. And to have it come back around, like ten-plus years later, it really felt like something I would [have] always thought about; I just admired this story so much and what [they] did. And when it did come back around, yeah, it felt surreal because it really kind of felt like, ‘Oh, well, things that are meant to be in your life will happen if they’re supposed to.’ And it just felt right. Abby felt right. It was very cool.”

THE LAST OF US, Season Premiere, Sunday, April 13, 9/8c, HBO

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• HBO Renews THE LAST OF US
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Releases Season 2 Trailer
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Sets Season 2 Premiere Date
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Shares New Season 2 Teaser Trailer, Art in Honor of ‘Outbreak Day’
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Releases First Season 2 Photos
• HBO Renews THE LAST OF US
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Sets January Series Debut
• THE LAST OF US: HBO Releases Moody First Teaser
• THE LAST OF US: Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker Cast of HBO Adaptation

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