The first season of The Last of Us aired early this year on HBO and became an immediate hit. A big part of the success came down to casting. Pedro Pascal was perfect as the grizzled survivor Joel, and Bella Ramsey spot on as the spunky Ellie, the only person to ever be bit by a zombie and not turn into one herself.
We dug into Ellie’s backstory in Episode 7, “Left Behind,” where we saw the tragic end to Ellie’s youthful romance with her friend Riley. Ellie didn’t have any romances during season 1 — trying to make her way across a ruined, zombie-ridden United States kept her more than busy enough — but that will change in season 2, where she’ll get to know a girl named Dina.
Or at least, that’s what happens in Naughty Dog’s video game The Last of Us Part II. “I’m really excited,” Ramsey told PinkNews. “Actually, the first time I’d ever heard of The Last of Us was a PinkNews article. This was before the show, before I even got the audition. saying that it was the first lesbian kiss in a video game. I remember seeing that and being like: ‘That’s really cool.’”
I cannot speak personally to whether Ellie and Dina’s kiss was the first-ever lesbian kiss in a video game, but I’m willing to trust PinkNews on the topic. The Last of Us Part II did break ground in terms of queer representation in mainstream video games by putting Ellie and Dina’s relationship at the center of the story. The TV show picked up that flag and ran with it, highlighting not only Ellie’s youthful fling with Riley but devoting a whole episode to a years-long relationship between two minor characters from the first game: Bill and Frank.
“When the script came through of Riley and Ellie’s story, I was very pleased,” Ramsey said. “What was cool about it as well is that it was really relevant to the story – it wasn’t just saying: ‘We’re going to make a queer episode.’ Same with the Bill and Frank story. It was relevant and really fed into Ellie’s story and how she is now. It helped to piece together people’s back story. It felt justified and very beautiful.”
The Last of Us season 2 is ready to hit the ground running with Ellie and Dina. Dina even shows up for a very brief cameo in the first season, after Joel and Ellie arrive in the town of Jackson.
So they don’t get off to the best start. All great romances (in the movies) begin that way. If this character is Dina, she’s played by Paolina van Cleef. There’s no word on whether they’ll cast someone else for season 2, though. We most likely won’t find out until The Last of Us season 2 starts airing on HBO and Max in 2025. They haven’t officially announced a release date, but with production delayed this year by the writers and actors strikes, I’m just going to assume they’re not going to be able to finish by the end of 2024.
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