When Kaitlyn Dever was cast as Abby in The Last of Us, I was curious how the usually slight actor would bulk up for her role. Now we know the answer: she won’t. It’s a disappointing development, and while logistics and the personal involvement of TLOU creator Neil Druckmann in the show buy it some credibility, I can’t help but feel Abby is not Abby without the muscles.
Aesthetically and thematically, they form a key part of her character. Though she is a layered, extremely complex character – underneath the strange hysteria that surrounds The Last of Us, she is one of gaming’s best – the foundation of these layers has always seemed to me to be her bodybuilding. I’m curious how HBO will adapt her character without it, but I can’t shake the feeling you can never quite do Abby justice without making her buff.
In the flashback scenes of The Last of Us Part 2, Abby and Ellie look very similar – that’s part of the reason why casting Dever, a longtime fancast for Ellie, was such a subversive idea. They are both pretty normal looking girls, but while Ellie retains a standard physique (with some apocalypse-enforced-wiriness) Abby packs on the muscle. This is an important visual development – two roads diverged in a mushroom-covered wood.
We see Abby retreat into bodybuilding in an attempt to shield herself from ever being hurt again. At her lowest moment, when she discovers Joel killed her father, she feels weak, and so resolves to become strong to protect herself from ever hurting again. In turn, this causes her to shut herself off from the people who care about her, which is also a defence mechanism against being hurt.
Crucially, this does not work – Abby can never be strong enough to make the pain go away, leading to her violent revenge on Joel and continued bitterness after the fact. She is not strong enough to save Yara either, and while she may have tried to block her friends out, they still matter a great deal to her. She cannot protect them, and under the biceps, her feelings still burn when she realises she has let them down. She has led them into danger and was unable to save them.
It’s also an important visual image. We don’t know how Abby will be introduced, but the show may well stick with the pacing of the games by showing all of Ellie’s arc, then switching to Abby. This was an extremely powerful moment in the game, and a massive risk. Amongst fans, there is an air that this will need to change in the show as the trick cannot be pulled twice.
But The Last of Us is a rare adaptation where appealing to the fans is not the core aim. For unwitting viewers shocked by Joel’s rampage through the facility to save Ellie, they could meet Abby for the first time as she lures Joel into her trap, and stands over him with her golf club. It is important not just for the reality of the scene but for depicting Abby immediately as an unsettlingly powerful figure that she looks like she could toss Joel over her shoulder without complaint.
With The Flashbacks, Casting A Buff Abby Is Tough
last of us 2 abby flashback
Like I said, I understand the logistical issues. Bulking up to Abby’s physique is difficult to do, and unhealthy in a short space of time. They could have cast someone already ripped, like Katy O’Brian, but then you’d be asking her to drop the weight for the flashbacks – a task even harder and less healthy for someone who has maintained that muscle mass for years.
I had hoped for a little movie magic. Shoot the flashbacks first, with Dever as she is now, then have her gain a sensible amount of muscle while putting her in clothing tighter around the shirt, shooting her slightly lower to make her seem imposing, and a little bit of practical goosing. Abby is 2000-era ‘big muscles’ Wolverine, not 2024-era ‘dehydrated superhuman vein-popping’ Wolverine. Though it may not have been as striking as the game, the visuals still could have worked.
Of course, there is another logistical issue for The Last of Us to solve. Bella Ramsey was 17 playing a 14 year old in the first season, and their youthful face and small frame pulled that off. Now they’re 21 playing 19 – Ellie is meant to have changed, but Ramsey hasn’t. It’s another conundrum for HBO.
Do I expect them to ‘solve’ it? Sure. Ramsey acted like a young girl as Ellie, and I expect we’ll see a different performance now, while styling changes will go a long way. Meanwhile, in the absence of Abby’s bodybuilding, I imagine something new will be written into the script to characterise her in a different way – a little like Joel’s panic attacks, or the timeline shift into a more modern era. But for me, it will never be the true Abby without this part of her character. Just someone wearing her clothes, and the clothes are too big.
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
93/100
- Released
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June 19, 2020
- Genres
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