{"id":448210,"date":"2024-01-10T15:00:18","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T21:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/?p=448210"},"modified":"2024-01-10T15:00:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T21:00:25","slug":"the-last-of-us-season-2-casts-young-mazino-as-jesse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/the-last-of-us-season-2-casts-young-mazino-as-jesse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last of Us season 2 casts Young Mazino as Jesse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Another actor has been cast for the next season of <em>The Last of Us<\/em>. HBO&#8217;s adaptation of the Naughty Dog series has found its Jesse in <em>Beef<\/em>\u2019s Young Mazino. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The news, tweeted by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Naughty_Dog\/status\/1745128503685841208?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Max and Naughty Dog<\/a>, comes a day after <em>Booksmart<\/em>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/kaitlyn-dever-cast-as-abby-in-the-last-of-us-season-2-hbo\/\">Kaitlyn Dever was cast as antagonist and dual protagonist Abby<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We&#39;re so excited for Young Mazino to step into the shoes of Jesse in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLastofUsHBO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheLastOfUsHBO<\/a> Season 2. \ud83c\udf89 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GurthEHRZU\">https:\/\/t.co\/GurthEHRZU<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Naughty_Dog\/status\/1745128503685841208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Creators Neil Druckmann and showrunner\/director Craig Mazin confirmed Young Mazino&#8217;s casting <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/tv\/news\/last-of-us-season-2-cast-young-mazino-jesse-1235866961\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">via Variety<\/a>, saying &#8220;Young is one of those rare actors who is immediately undeniable the moment you see him. We\u2019re so lucky to have him, and we can\u2019t wait for the audience to see Young shine in our show.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The video game adaptation, starring Pedro Pascal (<em>The Mandalorian<\/em>) and Bella Ramsey (<em>Game of Thrones<\/em>), is fresh off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/the-last-of-us-takes-home-eight-creative-emmy-awards\/\">eight Creative Emmy wins<\/a> and is nominated for five main Primetime Emmy awards, including Best Drama. The show was a massive hit for HBO and fans alike. This new season is expected to adapt the events of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/reviews\/review-the-last-of-us-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Last of Us Part II<\/a><\/em>, which was released in 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metacritic.com\/game\/the-last-of-us-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to critical praise<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesse, according to an official description <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/tv\/news\/last-of-us-season-2-cast-young-mazino-jesse-1235866961\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by Variety<\/a>, is said to be &#8220;a pillar of his community who puts everyone else\u2019s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.&#8221; His role in the game, which was played by Stephen Chang (<em>Bosch: Legacy<\/em>), was the leader of the Jackson patrol troops, and the on-again\/off-again love interest of Dina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-breaking-out\">Breaking Out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Young Mazino is a relatively new actor, starting in 2013 and doing small roles in <em>New Amsterdam<\/em> and <em>Blue Bloods<\/em>. His big break came with the 2023 Netflix acclaimed limited series <em>Beef<\/em> as Steven Yeun (<em>The Walking Dead<\/em>)\u2019s brother Paul Cho. He\u2019s currently nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his role, alongside his co-star Joseph Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have yet to see <em>Beef, <\/em>though it is high up there considering it&#8217;s been dominating the Miniseries category at awards shows thus far. Taking a chance on promising actors is always a win in my book. With that, Young Mazino seems like a great choice to play Jesse, a personal favorite of mine in <em>The Last of Us Part II<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Season two of <em>The Last of Us<\/em> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/filming-for-the-last-of-us-season-2-begins-early-2024\/\">scheduled to film later this year<\/a> and release sometime next year. With HBO announcing two roles in quick succession, I have a hunch we might hear more about other roles soon too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fan-favorite gets an up-and-comer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":888,"featured_media":448215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"article_type":"","ub_ctt_via":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"[]","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[147,20679,20016,21555,448,449,19721],"internal-label":[24255],"invoiceable_action":[23725],"article_type":[23116],"coauthors":[{"id":888,"display_name":"Michael Murphy","user_nicename":"michael-murphy"}],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Jesse_TheLastOfUsPartII.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","author_info":{"display_name":"Michael Murphy","author_link":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/author\/michael-murphy\/"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Jesse_TheLastOfUsPartII.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/888"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448210"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448243,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448210\/revisions\/448243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448210"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=448210"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=448210"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=448210"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=448210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}