Summary
The Last of Usseason 2 actor Isabela Merced addresses the backlash to season 2. Merced is slated to play Dina, a character fromThe Last of Us: Part IIvideo game, in the sophomore season of the hit HBO show. She joinsThe Last of Usseason 2 leading castthat includes returning actors Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, along with new stars Kaitlyn Dever, Jeffrey Wright, Catherine O’Hara, and Young Mazino.
Speaking withJosh Horowitzon theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, Merced addresses the controversy surroundingThe Last of Usseason 2.
On the podcast, Horowitz prompts Merced to speak about all the vitriol online that has been spurred already byThe Last of Usseason 2. In response,Merced questions “why are you mad?“in response to this kind of hate-filled backlash. The Dina actor points out that “the showrunner and the creator of the video game,” Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, collaborated to makeThe Last of Us. The actor says that this kind of rhetoric “really pisses [her] off.” Check out the full quote from Merced below:
What confuses me is like, the showrunner and the creator of the video game, they work together to make this. So, if you like what the guy made, and he’s making more of it, why are mad? You know what I mean. I don’t know, I’m too opinionated to be on Twitter, it really pisses me off, because I see this stuff, and it makes me want to go Cardi B on them.
The Last of Us Season 2 Backlash Explained
The Casting Has Caused Controversy
Though Horowitz keeps it vague when addressingThe Last of Usseason 2 backlash, themajority of the dissent has surrounded the casting.These debates have been primarily aimed at the three young female characters who will be central to season 2. Some people have taken issue with the fact thatRamsey will return to their Ellie roledespite the character being aged up five years (from 14 to 19). In reality, Ramsey is 20 years old, but the actor’s young appearance has led some to think that they should have been recast.
Hopefully, the season 2 performances from Dever, Ramsey, and Merced will be strong enough to squash some of the unnecessary backlash.
Dever and Merced’s casting as Abby and Dina, respectively, has also caused some audiences to be concerned. As Horowitz and Merced discuss in more detail in the next segment of the podcast, Abby herself was controversial inThe Last of Us: Part IIvideo game. For the show, some believe Dever’s appearance is different from Abby in the game,who is a notably strong young woman. As for Dina, the character in the game is of Jewish/Israeli heritage, while Merced is Peruvian-American.
These controversies will make it such that some people will already have a vendetta againstThe Last of Usseason 2 going into its 2025 release. Merced makes a good point, however, that Naughty Dog’s Druckmann works on the show himself, so these decisionsdid not just come as a result of Mazin blindly overriding the game’s canon. Horowitz also expressed a desire for people to just “let the great actors act.” Hopefully, the season 2 performances from Dever, Ramsey, and Merced will be strong enough to squash some of the unnecessary backlash.
The Last Of Us
Cast
The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama series set two decades after a global catastrophe. It follows Joel, a seasoned survivor, who is tasked with escorting Ellie, a teenage girl, across a desolated United States, transforming into a harrowing journey of survival and companionship.
