The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us was able to cover the entire storyline of the first game, but now we’re off to Season 2, and it’s not going to be as simple as giving us everything that came out in the second game.
That being said, characters that were introduced in the second game are now going to be making their live-action debuts, and after the casting of Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, we now have news on who is playing two key characters from Jackson in Part II.
Variety reports that Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) has been cast as Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) love interest Dina. Show co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin share:
“Dina is warm, brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous and instantly lovable… You can search forever for an actor who effortlessly embodies all of those things, or you can find Isabela Merced right away. We couldn’t be prouder to have her join our family.”
Isabela Merced has been cast as Dina in HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 pic.twitter.com/nwlyi0X08X
— Naughty Dog Info 🐾 (@NaughtyDogInfo) January 11, 2024
Besides the part of Dina, the show has also cast Dina’s ex-boyfriend Jesse who will be played by Beef star Young Mazino. Since we don’t really expect the series to take place during the actual timeline of the second game, it’s possible Dina and Ellie don’t get together in this season, and we could just be watching Ellie get feelings for Dina while she dates Jesse.
Young Mazino will play Jesse in HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 pic.twitter.com/uexMZpp2yM
— Naughty Dog Info 🐾 (@NaughtyDogInfo) January 10, 2024
Personally, I’m more concerned about the character of Abby who is considered by many as the co-protagonist of The Last of Us. Though we get her origin story late in the games, it would be good to have the second season be Abby’s origin, so we could watch her develop alongside Ellie.
We don’t know what Mazin and Druckmann have planned for this retelling, but so far, their liberties with the source material have been nothing but solid.
No release date has been set for the second season of The Last of Us.
