This post contains heavy spoilers for “The Last of Us Part II” and season 1 of “The Last of Us.”
We’re in a golden age of video game adaptations. Though the only perfect shows based on video games are all animated, shows like “Fallout” and “The Last of Us” prove that the video game curse is long gone. “The Last of Us,” though at times too faithful to its source material in season 1, was a gripping drama about the post-apocalypse. Even if the show couldn’t manage to reach the thrilling, emotionally devastating highs of the original game, it was nevertheless a must-watch series with memorable characters, challenging themes and one hell of a season finale.
Now, anticipation is sky high for the follow-up, especially as the upcoming season 2 will tackle the award-winning masterpiece that is “The Last of Us Part II.” With that anticipation also come lots of questions about how the TV show will address the many controversies that surrounded that game, starting with one centered on the character of Abby, who will be played in the show by Kaitlyn Dever.
In the games, Abby is introduced as an antagonist that crashes into Ellie’s life like a hammer on a glass table by murdering Joel, only for the game to do a switcheroo and change its point of view halfway through, forcing the player to take control of Abby and see the conflict through her perspective. It’s an incredible magic trick, and the reason the game works so well. The problem is that what works in a video game doesn’t necessarily work on TV, and for “The Last of Us” season 2 to work, it needs to make a significant change to how it tells the story of Abby and Ellie.
The Last of Us needs to avoid the game’s controversy
In the game, you spend a significant amount of time playing as Ellie as you hunt down Abby’s crew to get revenge for the shocking murder of Joel. Only after a few hours do you switch perspectives and play a long time as Abby in her own storyline, as you learn to understand her motivations and background.
On TV, however, that likely won’t work — at least not on HBO, where we often only get a new season of TV every two or more years. Imagine audiences tuning in to see more of the story of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal), experiencing Joel’s murder and the start of Ellie’s quest for revenge, and then waiting two more years only to watch the third season change protagonists to a small supporting character they only know as the one to murder their beloved Joel.
This is similar to what happened with “Attack on Titan,” the hugely popular anime. When season 3 ended, we had just hit a major milestone, and audiences were desperate to see where the characters would go next. Instead, when the following season premiered a year and a half later, audiences spent several weeks following an entirely new set of characters — including one that ended up murdering a beloved main character. This resulted in a rather poignant story about heroes being villains in someone else’s story, and about the effect of war on children. Still, the damage was done, and the character of Gaby became the target of much vitriol and misogyny online.
“The Last of Us” can’t have this happen — especially as the nature of the story already has actor Kaitlyn Dever asking for extra security on set. Rather than spending a whole season making Abby the big bad wolf and then make her the protagonist after two years once the damage is finally done, “The Last of Us” season 2 should intertwine the Abby and Ellie storylines immediately, changing perspective every episode if not every few scenes. This wouldn’t be out of place for a show on HBO, with series like “Game of Thrones” getting audiences used to changing point-of-view characters every few minutes. Maybe Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin are eagerly anticipating pulling the rug out from TV viewers, but we’re hoping they’re able to make an adaptation choice that maintains the effectiveness of the story without generating a massive backlash against one of the most complex characters in the franchise.