Can ‘The Last of Us’ Survive Switching Main Characters for a Third Time?

The Last of Us Season 2 has barely finished, and there's already some controversy forming ahead of Season 3. Just this week, series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed that the upcoming season will feature a big change, with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) taking over from Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as the new protagonist. This switch was already anticipated in the Season 2 finale, with a flashback scene focused on Abby wrapping up the episode.

The timing of the news and Mazin and Druckmann coming forward to make this switch official seems awfully strange, though, as if there was more to it than simple storytelling reasons. With so much going on and Season 2's ratings at an all-time low for the series, we can't help but wonder: can The Last of Us pull off yet another protagonist change?

The Protagonist Switch Was Expected, but Is There More to It?

Abby's rise is teased in the season finale, and, in the game, she also shares protagonist status with Ellie, so if The Last of Us Season 2 was focused on Ellie's journey, it's only natural that Season 3 focuses on Abby. It's about balance, because they both have compelling and complementary stories. However, Season 2 not only had worse ratings than Season 1, but it was also poorly received by the average viewer. You can factor in killing off Joel (Pedro Pascal) in Episode 2, but that's not really what this is about. There are significant deviations in how the series adapts the game's story, which alter key aspects, including pacing and character development, to the point where it becomes an issue. Ellie herself is among these differences, as the series portrays her as a more mood-swinging character whose actions and behavior don't align with either her gaming counterpart or the situation she's in. Bella Ramsey does a great job, as always; it's the material she has to work with that's lacking, and viewers can sense it.

From a narrative perspective, switching the main characters from Ellie to Abby makes complete sense and has been teased from the beginning, but publicly coming forward to announce it feels like a PR stunt that's signaling to unsatisfied viewers that "if you didn't love Season 2, don't worry, Season 3 will be completely different." It's all in how this is addressed; instead of diminishing Ellie's role or excluding her from the conversation, let's discuss both Ellie and Abby. Ellie's writing was an issue in Season 2, but it can improve, and Abby will play a big part in it. Simply sidelining Ellie feels like acknowledging that she was an issue without addressing the poor writing behind it, as if everything was being swept under a rug, and that's not how it works, especially with such a great and important character like Ellie.

Abby Will Be the Series’ Third Protagonist — How Will Viewers React?

Gaming is not for everyone, which is why adapting The Last of Us into a series was such a no-brainer. It's not only a great game, but also a compelling story, one that even those who aren't into video games would enjoy. The whole thing is about introducing that story to a larger audience, so we can't assume that everyone who watches the series is familiar with what happens in the game. However, we can assume that they're familiar with television, meaning that they have an unbiased outlook on the series from the start and are able to recognize its faults as a TV series, not necessarily as an adaptation. This helps us understand why viewership declined in Season 2, and how the audience may feel about the series' future with so much going on.

The best episode in Season 2 isn't focused solely on Ellie, and Abby doesn't even appear; instead, in Episode 6, most of the plot is actually centered on the dynamics between Ellie and Joel. This is what made Season 1 such a hit, with Joel being the main character, and it shows how much audiences miss him. His death in Season 2 was necessary and passed the torch to Ellie, but it represents a significant and sudden change in the series' status quo. Ellie is a completely different character, and although we may know her well from Season 1, putting her in the spotlight in a series is different from a game where players are Ellie. She had to be set up as the new protagonist, have her own supporting characters introduced, and her own motives come forward... And now everything changes again. Abby taking over as the new protagonist in Season 3 makes her the third lead in three different seasons of The Last of Us. As much sense as it makes from an adaptation standpoint, it's just a lot to take in.

The worst thing that can happen to a series is the audience becoming aware that things are not right. Viewers could have reached that conclusion by themselves, given the difference in pacing and storytelling from Seasons 1 to 2, but the repercussions of Season 2 and now it becoming official that Abby will take center stage make watching the series less compelling. As much as we talk and explain this switch from a gaming perspective, for regular viewers it will still feel like it's all a Hail-Mary to save the series, given how poorly received Ellie was in Season 2, and it will undoubtedly affect ratings. Of course, declines in ratings may happen between seasons, especially from such a stellar first season as The Last of Us had, to a regular one like the second, but, with so many changes happening so often, the main character in Season 3 will prove to be viewer retention, not Abby.

Can the Series Make Its Protagonists Work Past Season 3

Everything about The Last of Us feels different for people who have played the games and people who haven't, and that's become a problem for the writers. People who have played them can understand (although not necessarily like) the changes, but for people who haven't, it's just a series that lost its touch between seasons, one of many. In that sense, changing the protagonist is often seen as a drastic measure to save a series, typically done when it's in trouble or reaches a dead end. With Abby taking over, it's now crucial that the writers make it work not just for Season 3, but also beyond that. It's not just about telling Abby's story, but also about what things will look like when Ellie comes back.

In the game, Abby's storyline begins right from the start, as she's a playable character alongside Ellie during the blizzard in Jackson. More than playing both of them, we get more time to explore them and truly come to see them as two sides of a coin. Right now, this should be the aim of The Last of Us on TV, not sidelining one character in favor of a promise for Season 3. Understandably, setting one season for Ellie and one for Abby might seem "more organized," but it didn't work, so now the focus shouldn't be solely on one of the other. Instead, give Abby more room for her story, but keep Ellie closeto reinforce the idea of opposites that attract, which is ever-present in the game. That's what the future of the series should be about. The current TV and streaming landscape is unforgiving, and even a flagship series like The Last of Us needs to perform, but there's still time to turn things around.