The Last of Us Season 3’s Big New Character is a Massive Series Retcon

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Published Mar 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot.

Abby Anderson would not have been a key character in The Last of Us Part 2, let alone one of two main protagonists, if it was not for the brutal death of her incomprehensibly important father, Jerry. This incites an act of vengeance on Abby’s behalf that is obviously deeply personal for her, but his death also means much more to the world of The Last of Us than a daughter losing her father when the sequel reveals that Jerry was the sole hope for humankind in terms of a theoretical cure.

Has HBO’s The Last of Us Cast a New Jerry?

The first character that is likely to come to mind when hearing that Patrick Wilson has been cast in The Last of Us Season 3 is Jerry, Abby’s father and the head surgeon whose murder at the hands of Joel effectively denies any chance of a viable vaccine for the Cordyceps brain infection ever being manufactured, supposedly. However, this is not who was cast to play Jerry when the character appeared briefly at the end of The Last of Us Season 1.

The show’s Jerry was played by actor Darren Dolynski, who was conveniently covered head to toe in surgical attire. The likeliest outcome of this is that Darren Dolynski was purposefully cast as a stand-in or ‘understudy’ so that there would not need to be an immediate commitment to a high-profile, A-list actor, especially if he was only going to have a deliberately tiny role as an unidentified character in the first season.

On IMDb, Darren Dolynski is credited simply as “Surgeon,” concealing the character’s true identity.

Not dissimilar to how this nameless surgeon suddenly became a significant character in The Last of Us Part 2, so too should he in The Last of Us Season 3. It is fully possible that he has been recast now that the show will have to actually develop the character, though that would also ironically be shortsighted (and unfortunate for Darren Dolynski, too, as he would be losing the role).

Abby’s Dad is a Man of Many Faces

Casting Jerry is something that the TV show arguably should have prepared for in advance, assuming that Patrick Wilson truly is playing him. The Last of Us’ Naughty Dog had the excuse of probably not having even considered that the surgeon could be as paramount and story-rippling as he turned out to be, for instance, and the graphical bounds that The Last of Us Part 2 makes in comparison to The Last of Us ensured that his character model would require an update, anyhow.

But, because The Last of Us’ TV show is an adaptation of the games, it knew that the Salt Lake City hospital surgeon would eventually be vital to the narrative, even if this fact was obscured in Season 1 so that a future reveal of her being Abby’s father would land with audiences who have not played the games it is inspired by. Therefore, recasting or remodeling Jerry as the games did was not an inevitability or unavoidable for the show, as it knew it would flesh him out as a character later on.

The Last of Us Season 3 is currently in development.