Rumortown: Florence Pugh offered the role of Abby for The Last of Us season 2?

Look, work on the second season of The Last of Us is stalled on account of the writers and actors strikes that have basically shut down Hollywood. We have no real news to report about the second season of HBO’s thrilling zombie drama, so we’re amusing ourselves in other ways, like entertaining rumors about casting.

This latest rumor comes from from the website formerly known as Twitter, from an industry leaker known as MyTimeToShineHello. They purport to know about who HBO would like to cast as Abby, a hugely important character from the video game The Last of Us: Part II. I won’t go into spoilers, but if you’ve played The Last of Us games from Naughty Dog, you know how big a part Abby will play in the second season of the show.

According to MyTimeToShineHello, none other than Academy Award-nominated actor Florence Pugh was offered the role of Abby before Hollywood actors went on strike in July. They also say that Australian actor Shannon Berry is in the running for the role.

Is Australian actor Shannon Berry playing Abby in The Last of Us season 2?

Florence Pugh bears some resemblance to Abby from the games, but she’s such a big star — you’ll soon be able to see her as Princess Irulan in Dune: Part 2, as well as in the Marvel movie Thunderbolts as Yelena Belova — that I sort of have a hard time believing she’d commit herself to a grueling TV show like The Last of Us. Although it is easier to imagine HBO offering her the part. Who knows?

As for Shannon Berry, she’s best known for her work in the Amazon series The Wilds. Her profile is much lower than Pugh’s. She’s become a popular fan-cast for Abby in large part because she kind of looks like the character as depicted in the video games. Also, she follows multiple The Last of Us show accounts on social media, and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann follows her, according to Forbes.

That said, I’m suspicious of the idea that what the producers are looking for when casting a role is an actor who resembles the character from the video game. For instance, Pedro Pascal doesn’t look a whole lot like Joel does in the video games, but he still crushed the role on the TV show. It’s more about feel and fit.

But that said, it’s true that Abby is very distinctive visually. Namely, she has a jacked physique, so if we see either Pugh or Berry hitting the gym in the near future, it could be worth keeping an eye on.

Unfortunately, there is no release date for The Last of Us season 2 as of yet. The sooner the studios offer a fair deal to writers and actors, the sooner we can get this thing back on track.

Visit The Last of Us experience at Universal Studios Hollywood

If you’re truly desperate for more The Last of Us, there are videos going of the newly opened The Last of Us experience at Universal Studios Hollywood. It’s basically a haunted house experience themed around The Last of Us. Take a look:

The Last of Us Experience runs through October 31.

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