The Last of Us S2 teaser features Ellie and Dina’s queer romance

The Cordyceps chaos will continue this spring, as HBO has confirmed in a teaser trailer that The Last of Us will return for its second outing this April.

Season two will see unlikely duo Ellie (Time’s Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Gladiator II’s Pedro Pascal) back in survival mode, their relationship reaching a fraught crossroads following the events of the end of season one.

In addition to their newly frictious dynamic, fans of the show will be introduced to a flurry of new and controversial characters, all of whom are well-known among the players of the original Naughty Dog games.

One such character is Dina, Madame Webb star Isabela Merced, who plays the queer love interest of leading survivalist Ellie.

The pair meet in the Jackson commune in which Ellie and Joel now reside, alongside Joel’s brother Tommy (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Gabriel Luna) and Tommy’s pregnant wife Maria (True Blood’s Rutina Wesley).

In the minute-long teaser trailer, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot lifted directly from the The Last of Us Part II video game shows Dina with her arms wrapped around Ellie as the pair slow dance.

Another sequence, also taken from the game, sees Ellie and Dina desperately clambering through an abandoned subway train as the infected attempt to batter down the windows.

Ellie’s sexuality was first covered in season one of the eight-time Emmy Award-winning series, with the teenager kissing her best friend Riley (Euphoria’s Storm Reid) in an abandoned shopping mall.

Speaking to PinkNews at the end of 2023, Ramsey said that they “couldn’t wait” to see Ellie begin the lesbian romance in the show. 

Ellie and Dina’s relationship will be one of the focal points of season two, which will also cover a number of jaw-dropping plots that players of the game are anticipating with baited breath.

No spoilers here, but one such plot involves season two’s new character Abby (Dopesick star Kaitlyn Dever), who is hated so much by the game franchise’s fandom that the actress required additional security while filming.

In the teaser trailer, Abby is seen creeping down a hallway towards a bright red exit sign, wearing a Firefly pendant and brandishing a gun while alarms blare overhead.

Other characters being introduced into Ellie and Joel’s gruesome fight for life include Beef star Young Mazino as Dina’s ex Jesse, while Beetlejuice Beetlejuice actress Catherine O’Hara will play Joel’s therapist in a guest role.

Season two will also see the introduction of Manny (Top Gun: Maverick’s Danny Ramirez), Nora (Kaleidoscope’s Tati Gabrielle), Owen (Riverdale’s Spencer Lord) and Mel (How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s Ariela Barer), a cohort working with Abby.

Jeffrey Wright, who voiced the role of Isaac in the the second game, will play the same character in the second season, too.

The Last of Us will arrive on HBO in April.

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