Kaitlyn Dever on joining 'The Last Of Us' as Abby after being considered to play Ellie

The Last of Us season two will feature Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.

While Dever has been cast to play Abby, a soldier seeking vengeance, she was initially a contender to play Ellie, the lead character. But that was a decade ago when a movie adaptation of the video game was being considered.

“I didn’t even audition. It was only just like meetings I was having with [creator] Neil [Druckmann]. I was going to [Druckmann’s video game company] Naughty Dog and he was showing me how the game was created and definitely giving me spoilers for game II years before it came out; I had to carry a lot of weight, it’s been rough these last 10 years, I have to say,” Dever told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s premiere on Monday.

The Unbelievable star shared: “I always thought about it as this thing that I bonded a lot with my dad and we played the game together. I had those few months where I was talking to Neil about potentially playing Ellie, but then, as moviemaking goes, that went away for a while.”

Regarding the show, she said, “I was really excited to see it as a show and Bella did such an amazing job and the two of them, Bella and Pedro, do something so magical in the first season that I was honestly just a fan. So when it came back around into my life” with the role of Abby, “it almost felt like, ‘Oh, this was always meant to be in my life, just in a different way,’ and that felt really cool.”

The Last of Us season two will premiere at HBO MAX on April 13.