Every post-apocalyptic series has its share of cast turnover. But Pedro Pascal singlehandedly changed the face of HBO’s “The Last of Us” with the horrifying Season 1 hospital finale.
Pascal’s enraged protector, Joel, mowed down the rebel Fireflies (including the surgeon in scrubs), who were about to study immune Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) brain for a possible infection cure to save humanity.
Season 2 kicked off April 13 (now streaming on Max) with a revamped crew of returning faces and new characters in the video game adaptation — including a posse seeking revenge for Joel’s violent act of surrogate father love.
Here are the main players joining Joel and Ellie in fortified Jackson, Wyoming, five years after the Firefly destruction:
“The Last of Us” USA TODAY review Season 2 finds its horrors but loses the plot
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Isabela Merced stars as Dina
Who’s Dina? The warrior who patrols the infected has become Ellie’s best friend and joke-cracking action sidekick. The Dina-Ellie relationship goes deeper during a dance in Episode 1. While Ellie is subconsciously furious at her surrogate dad, Dina gamely rewatches the beloved “Curtis and Viper 2” movie with Joel. “He’s like Dina’s fun uncle,” says Merced. “We don’t see that dynamic in the game, but it really informs how we’ll see Dina later on.”
We’ve seen Isabela Merced before: Merced, 23, played Dora in 2019’s live-action movie “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” and Izabella in 2017’s “Transformers: The Last Night.”
Additional superpower: Merced is Hawkgirl in DC’s “Superman” movie, which opens July 11 (the same month as Pascal’s superhero role in Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”) There’s no blockbuster beef. “It’s a win-win. If he wins, we all win. If I win, we all win,” says Merced. “It’s pretty cool that we both get to be superheroes at the same time.”
Young Mazino can fight as Jesse
Who’s Jesse: The patrol leader gives everything to Jackson, and gains respect from the community as patrol leader. Jesse has an on-and-off relationship with Dina (currently off).
We’ve seen Young Mazino before: Mazino, 33, sizzled in his Emmy-nominated, breakout role in Netflix’s rage-filled series “Beef.”
Extra credit: Mazino brings real fight to dystopian Jackson. Born Christopher Young Kim to Korean immigrant parents, Mazino, 33, is a first-degree Taekwondo blackbelt who “dabbles” in martial arts, including Muay Thai. But expect gun skills against the infected. “I won’t give spoilers, but if Jesse is doing Muay Thai, I’m in a really bad situation,” says Mazino.
Kaitlyn Dever rocks rage as Abby
Who’s Abby? Abby Anderson is a pivotal Part 2 video game character who leads a devastated group of Firefly survivors to hunt down Joel for what he did.
We’ve seen Dever before: Dever, 28, starred as socially awkward Amy in 2019’s “Booksmart,” Betsy Mallum in Hulu’s 2021 miniseries “Dopesick” and wellness influencer Belle Gibson in Netflix’s “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
Previous life: Dever was cast as Ellie a decade ago in the original film version of “The Last of Us” that was later scrapped. “As filmmaking goes, it just didn’t end up happening,” says Dever, who believes playing TV’s Abby a decade later is her destiny. “It feels like that was meant to be.”
Crushing the casting controversy: Some fans initially objected to the pivotal casting, saying Abby is noticeably more ripped in the video game. Dever saw the social-media trolling. “Yeah, duh, like right when I opened my phone,” she says. “It was hard to get away from it. But there was no wavering from ‘absolutely yes’ for this part.”
Dever brings channeled rage to Abby. “I changed my body language,” she says. “How she walks and commands a room is actually quite intimidating.”
The Millers are back, with a son, Benjamin
Who are the Millers? Joel’s family since Season 1 has been brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and pregnant sister-in-law Maria Miller (Rutina Wesley). After so much death, the Millers, pillars of the Jackson community, now have a 5-year-old son, Benjamin (Ezra Benedict Agbonkhese).
“Maria keeps saying, ‘He’s our gift,’ ” Wesley says of her onscreen child. “He’s really softened (her) in a way that she forgot she could be and made us closer as a couple.”
“Benji’s our Phoenix,” says Luna. “The child has reignited our purpose.”
