By Chad W. Shreeves

As preproduction on the eagerly anticipated second season of HBO’s The Last of Us gets underway, several cast announcements were made over the last few days.

The most recent to join the cast is Isabela Merced playing the role of Dina. Fans of the game series will remember Dina as Ellie’s fellow survivor in Jackson and love interest. She plays an important role in the Part II story and it’s going to be interesting to see how Merced pulls off the difficulty of the part.

Merced joins a growing list of cast members that include Young Mazino as Jessie and Kaitlyn Dever as the main antagonist, Abby. More major cast announcements are expected in the coming days.

This joins returning stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as the post apocalyptic series aims to begin full production next month.

The Last of Us, based on the hugely popular PlayStation video game, follows Joel and Ellie as they navigate a virus ravaged wasteland just trying to survive from zombie-like creatures. The games (and last year’s excellent series) have been praised for their heavy, mature narrative and tense horror moments mixed with powerful character drama.

Both entries in the game series have won multiple Game of the Year awards and the series netted several Emmy nominations and a win for Best Guest Star (Nick Offerman). Season 2 is expected to release on HBO and Max sometime in 2025.

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