Florence Pugh might have almost played Abby in The Last of Us Season 2

The Last of Us Season 2 will bring one of gaming’s most controversial villains to the screen, and apparently Florence Pugh could have played her.

The first season of HBO’s video game adaptation was a runaway success, somehow condensing the entire arc of the game into nine episodes while expanding on certain elements.

Season 2 was quickly green-lit, but fans may be reacting to that with both excitement and anxiety. The Last of Us Part2 is one of the most controversial games out there, both for it’s plot, and for it’s main antagonist/protagonist, Abby. Because of this, Abby’s casting has been a major hot topic over the past few months.

While nothing has been confirmed, rumors are pointing towards Shannon Berry (from The Wilds) bagging the role – you can read more about that here. However, it seems that we could have had a very big name taking on the role, that being Hollywood star Florence Pugh.

Pugh was reportedly offered Abby for The Last of Us

Recently, The Last of Us fans were treated to an unconfirmed report that “Florence Pugh got an offer to play Abby in The Last of Us HBO Season 2 pre-strikes.”

This statement came from Twitter user @DomTheBombYT, who is known for occasionally dropping unknown reports about upcoming media.

“This comes via credible scooper @MyTimeToShineH who claims they have a source that says Florence got an offer from HBO but they claim a source says Shannon Berry got the role instead.”

The tweet does not state why Pugh did not accept the offer. Considering how good of an actor Florence Pugh is – and how well she can do action, as seen below in her role as Yelena in Marvel‘s Black Widow – she would definitely have the chops to take on Abby.

But then again, considering how big of a name she is, perhaps it would be best for HBO to lean towards a less well known actor, to keep the series’ sense of realism. And as the tweet reveals, it seems that rumors circling Shannon Berry are in fact correct in her casting.

Either way, the role of Abby will be taxing, both on and off screen (we all know how toxic TLOU fans can get) so no doubt the show’s creators are giving the casting a lot of thought.

Abby has seemingly now been cast

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Craig Mazin spoke about his expectations for Season 2, in which he hinted that Abby had been cast: “Maybe [laughs],” he responded. When the interviewer told him this seemed like a yes, Mazin said: “The strike stopped us in our tracks. Things were in process.

“Look, Abby was the first role that we wanted to tackle. We’ve got a pretty good track record of making major cast announcements and people going ‘really?’ which will probably continue. So people may disagree, but I think we got it right so far and the audience seems to feel we got it right and the Academy seems to feel we got it right.”

Mazin also confirmed that there wouldn’t be any recasting in Season 2. “We are not doing House of the Dragon leaps. Those were very significant leaps in age, and we don’t have that. So, no recasting will occur. Not on my watch,” he told Collider.

You can find out more about who we’re expecting to play Abby in The Last of Us Season 2 here, and everything we know about the second season here.