The Last of Us Fans Are Loving This Character More in the Show Than the Game

We’re only one episode into The Last of Us Season 2, and already fans seem to be liking this version of Dina more than the original video game character. Dina is a new character introduced after the time skip — another resident of Jackson, Wyoming who has a burgeoning romance with Ellie (though Season 1 featured a tease of her). She is played by Isabela Merced and portrayed as a heart-on-her-sleeve type, which is welcome in this grim post-apocalyptic world. She already seems to be getting more screentime here than in the game, and that alone has endeared her to fans. Spoilers follow for The Last of Us Season 2 premiere!

This week’s season premiere, “Future Days,” was generally very faithful to the opening of The Last of Us Part II, changing and removing little, while adding new scenes to fill out the story. The game picks up four years after the events of its predecessor, while Season 2 takes a five-year time skip. While parsing the episode on social media and online forums, many fans felt that the show did a better job on catching us up and immersing us in Joel and Ellie’s new life.

That life includes Dina now, and fans particularly loved the extra attention on the dynamic Joel and Dina have developed, separate from Ellie. Over on Reddit, one commenter wrote: “Joel saying Dina was acting more like a daughter to him was heartwarming,” while another added: “I’m glad they’re fleshing out that Joel and Dina had a relationship too. It was such a shame that we never really got to see Joel interact with the new characters in the game.”

[RELATED: The Biggest Change in The Last of Us Is Now a Major Part of Season 2 (And You Missed It)]

The central tension of this episode is the growing distance between Joel and Ellie, which Joel is consciously worried about while Ellie is not. Joel is getting a lot of advice and trying hard — perhaps too hard — to fix this dynamic, but some felt like the most hopeful moment for this plot came from Dina. When she told him simply that they will be okay eventually, it stuck with plenty of commenters.

Dina Comparisons

In The Last of Us Part II, Dina is voiced and performed by Shannon Woodward. In the game we’re introduced to her as Ellie prepares to go out on a patrol, kick-starting not only a tutorial about movement, stealth, and combat, but also grounding Dina’s personality and friendship with Ellie. The game continues by showing off the relationship the pair have as they go out on their patrol, which is just the pair of them as opposed to an entire group in the TV Series.

In both The Last of Us game and the TV show, both Ellie and Dina share a kiss at big social event in Jackson, their first, albeit a very public one. In addition, both versions of Dina previously had a relationship with Jesse.

Dina’s roll in The Last of Us game however is as a companion to the player, and though some depth to her character is present, The Last of Us TV series has already improved upon her in a major way, in large part due to Isabela Merced’s performance.

If 23-year-old Merced looks familiar to you, that’s no surprise. She has had a busy decade with plenty of TV and movie roles, including the titular role in the live-action Dora the Explorer movie, Dora and the Lost City of Gold. More recently, she played the tragic Kay in Alien: Romulus, and she is just a few months away from her DCU debut in Superman. She will plays Hawkgirl, a.k.a. Kendra Saunders.

This season premiere inspired a lot of predictions about where this season is going and how the changes we’ve seen so far will ripple throughout the story. Many of them concern Dina, and it’s a dangerous time online for those trying to avoid spoilers. The Last of Us airs weekly on Sunday nights at 9 P.M. ET on HBO and Max.