After announcing that Kaitlyn Dever will join the cast of HBO's The Last of Us as Abby last week, the show's second season now also has a Dina in Isabela Merced.
According to an official announcement, Merced will join Dever, Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and the rest of the cast for the second season, which will follow the events of The Last of Us: Part Two. In the games, Dina is Ellie's partner who she met in Jackson and who accompanies her on her journey in the game, though she is opposed to Ellie's deep need for vengeance.
“Dina is warm, brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous and instantly lovable," reads a quote provided by co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. "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.”
Merced has played numerous roles over the years, most notably Izabella in Transformers: The Last Knight, Dora in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Lizzy in Instant Family, and Rachel in Sweet Girl on Netflix. She also had a brief role in Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover as the voice of Ava.
The Last of Us' first season took home a pile of Emmys last week, and was one of our nominees for best TV show of 2023. The second season is currently planned to debut in 2025, and may go on even after that even though the story from the game itself will largely be finished up to that point. One possibility is through spin-offs, as mentioned by Mazin, though Druckmann has previously said he has a story outline for a The Last of Us Part 3 game, which could conceivably also inspire future seasons.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
