“Abby is the hero of her own story”: The Last of Us showrunners talk about future storylines way before Season 3

Even before the cameras roll on Season 3, The Last of Us begins to shift its entire rhythm around Abby. The world moves differently when seen through her eyes. Heavier. Sharper. Built from scars, silence, and choices no one else could carry.

“Abby is the hero of her own story.” - Craig Mazin

Neil Druckmann chose these words with the clarity of someone who already sees the next battlefield.

The Last of Us Season 2 left the ground trembling. Season 3 is promising to reeload the narrative with a new stance, a new command, and a protagonist forged in the aftermath. Abby stands where the story tightens. Every movement pulls focus. Every memory redraws the map. Her mission comes with memory and the kind of precision that only exists after everything breaks.

The lens now will follow her steps like a player tracking a target across hostile terrain. Not as a second perspective, but as the core campaign. And The Last of Us steps into that structure with full intent, placing Abby at the center of its weight, its rage, its purpose.

The legacy of The Last of Us Part II and the backlash that shaped it

When The Last of Us Part II launched, it triggered more than a continuation. It set off a controlled detonation. Abby entered the narrative as a tectonic force, introduced through impact and sustained through presence. The first encounter redefined the emotional map of the story. From that moment forward, every frame carried her weight.

Abby stood at the center of a second campaign. A fully constructed arc with its own logic, tempo and moral code. The story multiplied, reshaping itself around her rhythm. Hours inside her world reframed every choice, every bond, every breath held in silence. Muscle memory and grief moved in sync. Every interaction demanded a different kind of awareness, sharpened by purpose and cost.

The audience response sparked a wave of intensity across the fandom. Abby remained unshaken. Her arc held with clarity, designed with precision, and delivered without apology.

Druckmann and Mazin now channel that same energy into the series. With Season 3 centered on Abby’s path, The Last of Us follows the blueprint that transformed a revenge tale into a dual campaign, each side carrying its truth, each movement echoing louder from the other’s footsteps.

Rebuilding the mirror

The Last of Us Season 2 laid the groundwork. The camera followed Ellie through Jackson, through loss, through Seattle, tightening focus with each step. Every scene sharpened the objective. The structure mirrored the first half of The Last of Us Part II, tracing her path with precision and emotional weight. The Last of Us Season 3 now turns the lens, continuing the arc from Abby’s side and rebuilding the campaign across familiar terrain with a new command structure.

“I think we often talk about what‑ what are we promising the audience going forward? For example… we just ended season two, and season three is going to be starring — spoiler alert — Kaitlyn [Dever].” - Neil Druckmann

This is a shift in angle. The timeline returns to the beginning of Abby’s story, aligning with Ellie’s journey while unfolding through different codes, alliances and internal landscapes. The same warzone stretches ahead, reentered under new orders and reinterpreted through Abby’s presence.

The show is moving with deliberate rhythm, building tension through proximity and design. Abby takes point. Her relationships define the objective. Her decisions reframe the field. Each episode builds from her center outward, tracing the emotional circuitry of The Last of Us through her version of the mission. Parallel movements gain new weight. Every choice hits differently when it comes from her hands.

Who is Abby now?

Abby enters Season 3 carrying every decision she ever made. Her body holds the weight of the story. Her silence speaks louder than threat. Every scene she occupies reconfigures the emotional tempo of The Last of Us, not through dialogue, but through intention. Strength defines her, but it never isolates. The muscle comes with memory. The stance comes with grief.

“I think it was good to go on that journey to end up at HBO, end up at a place that leaned into those controversial decisions… But the decisions are just what the story required, and even now, it’s like I can’t believe that they let us structure the series in this way.” - Neil Druckmann

This version of Abby arrives with new dimensions. Kaitlyn Dever brings an intensity that moves from stillness to fury without breaking rhythm. Her presence reshapes the role. The performance builds from the inside, allowing Abby’s resolve to stretch across quiet moments and full-scale combat alike. The casting doesn’t soften the character. It sharpens her.

“When it comes to season 3, Dever is understandably excited to tackle this next chapter in Abby’s story, saying it makes me so happy to be a part of this family and to get to look forward to the journey we have ahead, too.” - Neil Druckmann

Abby’s journey moves through loyalty, rupture, punishment and the fragile attempts at something beyond war. She holds lines no one else can hold. She breaks rules others still follow. Her choices create space for contradiction. Protector and executioner. Survivor and strategist. The mission drives her forward, but something deeper keeps her human. In a world designed for collapse, Abby carries the structure that refuses to fall.

Ellie in the margins

Season 3 of The Last of Us repositions Ellie as a presence that burns quieter. Her arc continues at a distance, pulsing beneath the surface of Abby’s story. The lens shifts, and Ellie moves through grief with no words left to spare, no softness left to carry. The loss of Jesse stays close. The silence with Dina redraws the emotional map around her.

Every glimpse of Ellie holds the weight of a story already scorched. Her posture signals aftermath, her gaze stays locked and each movement from her lands with purpose. The violence now moves with herno longer hesitates. She calculates.

Abby stands at the center, but Ellie shapes the edges. Her scenes fold tension into every frame. Memory sharpens each encounter. The story breathes through the distance between them.

The Last of Us balances both paths at once, allowing Ellie’s silence to thicken the air. Every return to her face feels like pressure building beneath the surface, steady and deliberate.

A slow road to Season 3 of The Last of Us — and beyond

Season 3 of The Last of Us moves with the patience of long-form strategy. Production is set to begin in 2026. Release projections stretch into 2027. The wait extends, and every signal from the showrunners points to careful construction. This season continues the architecture of The Last of Us Part II, and the story will span more than one chapter.

“There is another side to this story that we have yet to really delve into. And there’s no question that Abby is the hero of her story, Kaitlyn Dever is the hero of a story always, you know. I mean, if you have a Kaitlyn Dever, you use a Kaitlyn Dever.” - Craig Mazin

The world of Abby opens across missions layered with pressure and pause. Each alliance reshapes the map. Each enemy encounter sharpens her profile. The narrative unfolds like a campaign in phases, with emotional checkpoints and controlled escalation. Flashbacks shift the weight of the present. Relationships evolve with battlefield precision. Nothing rushes. Everything lands.

The scale grows with intention. Every new setting reinforces the atmosphere. Every decision carries momentum across episodes, with Abby anchoring the arc, but with the long road ahead already mapped. The series moves with full command of what it’s building.

Reframing the cycle

Abby's arc expands Ellie’s pain, refracts it, and carries it through a different path. Both stories move through grief. Both live inside the same fractured world. The narrative grows through convergence. Impact builds from the clash between lives shaped by loss and shaped by purpose.

The Last of Us remains a story of aftermath. Every action leaves residue. Every silence stores weight. Abby brings a new tempo to that rhythm. Her presence widens the frame. She protects with force, acts with precision and moves with memory. The boundaries between hero, soldier, and survivor blur under pressure.

“What this war is and why it matters will be revealed … we will definitely see more of Isaac next season… whenever we start to hate them, something happens that makes us admire them and vice versa.” - Craig Mazin

This is where the series sharpens. Every character enters with a cost. Every step shifts the terrain. Abby moves through ruins shaped by other stories, carrying decisions that never leave her shoulders. Season 3 holds to her rhythm and builds from her gravity. Instead of restarting, the cycle transforms through what stays behind.