Kaitlyn Dever’s CGI Face Fix in The Last of Us Season 2 Explained

Much buzz has surrounded Abby’s debut in The Last of Us Season 2, but few expected Kaitlyn Dever’s face to require CGI due to a spider bite.

That’s precisely what occurred. In a Los Angeles Times interview about her work on the hit series, Dever revealed that during one of her early Fireflies episodes, the crew used CGI to conceal a severe spider bite on her face sustained during a break.

“It’s in the first Fireflies episode,” Dever explained. “I went home for a few weeks and got a spider bite on my cheek. I thought it was just a pimple—it wasn’t.”

“It was a massive spider bite, and it was pretty bad,” she continued. “The CGI work is incredible—you can’t even notice it. I still have a scar from where they had to remove it.”

Dever also shared how she channeled raw emotion for a pivotal scene. Following her mother’s passing from cancer, Dever filmed an intense sequence with Joel and Ellie just days after the funeral.

“I flew out three days after her funeral, and the fourth day was that chalet scene with the Fireflies,” she said. “It’s all a blur. Grief does strange things to your mind—it affects your memory in unexpected ways.”

HBO celebrated the success of The Last of Us Season 2, noting a surge in viewership that pushed the show’s global audience past 90 million since Season 1 concluded. The Season 2 finale drew 3.7 million cross-platform viewers in the U.S. on Sunday night, down from the 5.3 million who watched the premiere. Warner Bros. anticipates a significant audience increase for the finale, citing lower viewership during the Memorial Day weekend.

Notably, the Season 1 finale achieved a record 8.2 million viewers, a mark the Season 2 finale has yet to surpass.

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Showrunner Craig Mazin recently suggested a fourth season is likely necessary. In an interview, Mazin noted that concluding the story from Naughty Dog’s two video games in Season 3 alone would be impractical. While Season 3 may be longer than Season 2, he stated, “there’s no way to wrap up this story in just one more season.” Mazin and Neil Druckmann also hinted that the presence of some fan-favorite characters remains uncertain.