Fans have been buzzing about Abby's debut in The Last of Us Season 2, but few anticipated Kaitlyn Dever's face requiring CGI alteration due to an unfortunate spider bite.

During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Dever revealed that while filming her early Fireflies scenes, the production team had to digitally conceal a swollen bite mark she sustained between shoots.

"It appears in my first Fireflies episode," Dever explained. "During a break, I mistook a spider bite for a pimple. It turned out to be much more serious."

"The bite became severely inflamed and... I'll spare you the details, but it required drainage," she continued. "The visual effects team worked wonders—you'd never spot it on screen. I still bear a facial scar from the subsequent medical procedure."

Dever also reflected on channeling raw emotion for that pivotal scene. Sadly, she had just buried her mother four days prior to filming the emotionally charged confrontation with Joel and Ellie.

"I returned to set three days post-funeral," she shared. "By the fourth day, we were shooting the Fireflies lodge sequence. The experience remains hazy—it felt like witnessing events through fresh eyes. Grief profoundly affects memory and perception."

HBO reports The Last of Us Season 2 has expanded its global audience beyond 90 million since Season 1 concluded. While the U.S. finale drew 3.7 million cross-platform viewers—down from the premiere's 5.3 million—Warner Bros anticipates significant post-Memorial Day viewership growth.

The show faces an uphill battle to surpass Season 1's record-breaking 8.2 million finale viewers.

Every IGN The Last of Us Review

View 17 Images

Showrunner Craig Mazin recently confirmed a fourth season will be necessary to properly adapt Naughty Dog's games, noting that compressing the remaining story into Season 3 would be impractical. Though Season 3 may run longer, Mazin and Neil Druckmann remain tight-lipped about screen time allocations for key characters.