{"id":448592,"date":"2024-01-11T13:07:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T19:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/?p=448592"},"modified":"2024-01-11T13:07:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T19:07:51","slug":"isabela-merced-cast-as-dina-in-the-last-of-us-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/isabela-merced-cast-as-dina-in-the-last-of-us-season-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Isabela Merced cast as Dina in The Last of Us season 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Another lead in <em>The Last of Us Part II<\/em> has been cast for its TV adaptation. The second season of HBO\u2019s <em>The Last of Us<\/em> has found its Dina in <em>Instant Family<\/em>\u2019s Isabela Merced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The news, tweeted by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Naughty_Dog\/status\/1745491149681517046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Max and Naughty Dog<\/a>, is the third casting for the new season in the past few days. The first was <em>Booksmart<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/kaitlyn-dever-cast-as-abby-in-the-last-of-us-season-2-hbo\/\">Kaitlyn Dever as Abby<\/a>, and soon after, <em>Beef<\/em>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/the-last-of-us-season-2-casts-young-mazino-as-jesse\/\">Young Mazino as Jesse<\/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 can&#39;t wait to see Isabela Merced&#39;s portrayal of Dina in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheLastofUsHBO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheLastOfUsHBO<\/a> Season 2! \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Iqz10g0urU\">https:\/\/t.co\/Iqz10g0urU<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Naughty_Dog\/status\/1745491149681517046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 11, 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 talked about Merced and Dina <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/tv\/news\/last-of-us-season-2-cast-isabela-merced-dina-1235868899\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">with Variety<\/a>, saying &#8220;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\u2019t be prouder to have her join our family.&#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&nbsp;winning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/the-last-of-us-takes-home-eight-creative-emmy-awards\/\">eight Creative Emmys<\/a>&nbsp;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&nbsp;<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&nbsp;<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>Dina, according to an official description\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/tv\/news\/last-of-us-season-2-cast-isabela-merced-dina-1235868899\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by Variety<\/a>, is said to be \u201ca free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.\u201d Shannon Woodward (<em>Westworld<\/em>) voiced the role for the game, while Cascina Caradonna was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aE9LHBUKx4s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the face model<\/a>. The character plays a huge role in the sequel, as a romantic interest for both Ellie and Jesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-making-things-click\">Making Things Click<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Isabela Merced is a pretty big actress, if her resume is anything to go by. Breaking onto the scene with films like <em>Sicario: Day of the Soldado<\/em> and <em>Transformers: The Last Knight<\/em>, her title role in <em>Dora and the Lost City of Gold<\/em> shot her to stardom. Now, one can find her appearing in some big franchises in the future, like <em>Alien<\/em> (<em>Alien: Romulus<\/em>) DC (<em>Superman: Legacy),<\/em> and <em>Spider-Man<\/em> (<em>Madame Web<\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With such a busy schedule, it&#8217;s impressive that Merced is doing this big a role while filming franchise titles. I, for one, can&#8217;t wait to see her take on a character as deep and strong as Dina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Season two of\u00a0<em>The Last of Us<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/filming-for-the-last-of-us-season-2-begins-early-2024\/\">scheduled to film later this year<\/a>\u00a0and release sometime next year. Odds are, with HBO&#8217;s cadence of casting announcements, there&#8217;s probably still more to come. If you want to refresh yourself on Dina\u2019s part in the games,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/the-last-of-us-part-ii-remastered-reportedly-set-for-january-2024\/\"><em>The Last of Us Part II Remastered<\/em><\/a>\u00a0arrives for PS5 next week on January 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another major lead has been cast in the new season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":888,"featured_media":448609,"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":[147,20679,20016,448,449,19721],"internal-label":[24255],"invoiceable_action":[23726],"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\/Dina_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\/Dina_TheLastofUsPartII.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448592"}],"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=448592"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448639,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448592\/revisions\/448639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448592"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=448592"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=448592"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=448592"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.destructoid.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=448592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}