There’s been a lot of scuttlebutt about the arrival of Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, but I don’t think any of us were talking about actor Kaitlyn Dever getting her face CGI’ed due to a (shudder) spider bite.
That is exactly what happened, though. Talking to the Los Angeles Times about her time filming the smash-hit TV show, Dever admitted that in one of her first episodes with the Fireflies, the production team had to hide an “oozing” (shudder x2) bite mark that had happened during her downtime.
“It’s in the first episode with the Fireflies,” Dever said. “I had gone home for a few weeks and got a spider bite on my cheek. I thought it was a pimple. It was not a pimple.
“It was a huge spider bite and… I hate to use this word, but it was oozing,” she added. “And the CGI is amazing. You can’t even tell it is there. I still have a scar on my face because they had to cut it out.”
Dever also touched on how she found the anger to perform in that scene. Tragically, Dever’s mother had died of cancer, and the funeral was four days before she filmed that explosive, and emotional, scene with Joel and Ellie.
“I had to fly out three days after her funeral. And the fourth day was that scene in the chalet with the Fireflies. So, yeah, it’s all a blur, and it felt like I got to experience it as a first-time viewer. I’d see things and go, ‘Oh, yeah. Grief does a really interesting thing with your brain. It messes with your memory.”
HBO has hailed the success of The Last of Us Season 2, saying an “influx” of viewers has raised the series’ global audience to over 90 million since Season 1 ended. In the U.S., Sunday night’s Season 2 finale saw 3.7 million cross-platform viewers. The Season 2 premiere episode enjoyed 5.3 million viewers, which shows a decline from series opener to series closer, but Warner Bros. said it expects the audience for the Season 2 finale to grow “significantly” due to low viewing levels over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
It’s also worth noting that the Season 1 finale set an audience record of 8.2 million viewers, so the Season 2 finale has some way to go before beating that figure.
Last week, showrunner Craig Mazin indicated a fourth season is pretty much essential for the series. In an interview, Mazin agreed that in order to wrap up The Last of Us’ story from the two Naughty Dog-developed video games in Season 3 would mean Season 3 itself “would take forever.” So, while there’s a “decent chance” Season 3 will be longer than Season 2, at the end of the day, “there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season.” Mazin and Neil Druckmann also recently let us in on a little secret: they don’t yet know “how much, or rather how little” some of our favorite characters will be around.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
