The Last of Us Used CGI for Abby's Kaitlyn Dever

Discussions about Abby's role in The Last of Us Season 2 have been everywhere, but few expected Kaitlyn Dever's facial injury—courtesy of a spider bite—to require CGI magic.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Dever revealed that during early filming with the Fireflies, the makeup team had to digitally conceal a swollen bite mark she sustained off-set.

"It’s visible in my first Fireflies episode," Dever explained. "During a break, I mistook a spider bite for a pimple. Turns out, it was far worse."

"The bite became severely inflamed, and—I cringe saying this—it started oozing," she continued. "The CGI team worked wonders. The scar’s still there, though—they had to surgically remove it."

Dever also shared how personal grief fueled her performance in *that* pivotal scene. Her mother’s funeral occurred just four days before filming Joel and Ellie’s explosive confrontation.

"I flew back three days post-funeral. By day four, we shot the Fireflies chalet sequence," she recalled. "Honestly, it’s all foggy—like experiencing it fresh as a viewer. Grief warps memory in strange ways."

HBO reports The Last of Us Season 2 has expanded its global audience to 90+ million since Season 1. While the U.S. Season 2 finale drew 3.7 million cross-platform viewers—down from the premiere’s 5.3 million—Warner Bros. anticipates post-Memorial Day streaming surges.

Notably, Season 1’s finale still holds the record with 8.2 million viewers, leaving Season 2’s closing numbers room for growth.

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Showrunner Craig Mazin recently confirmed a fourth season is virtually necessary, explaining that condensing Naughty Dog’s two-game arc into Season 3 would "dragged it out." Though Season 3 may run longer, he admits "there’s no way" to conclude everything then. Mazin and Neil Druckmann also teased uncertainty about certain characters’ future screen time.