Isabela Merced is a great actress in her own right, but before she was an unsuspecting pregnant girl being hunted by sci-fi monsters, she was the live-action Dora the Explorer in 2019’s Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
A lot of people don’t really remember that about Merced, but some fans think that her new hit show The Last of Us, is actually poking fun at Merced’s time as the ‘super cool exploradora’. As a fan on Reddit had pointed out, Merced’s character Dina is kind of surrounded by things that remind people of Dora.
https://twitter.com/mackyp4/status/1917100765102944332
First off, when she meets Ellie before they go off to Seattle, Dina brings a map and a backpack (Map and Backpack are Dora’s sentient friends who she travels with). She also makes mention of Ellie’s boots (Boots is Dora’s monkey friend), and they have Seth help them “swipe” some items for their trip (there is a recurring thief character in Dora named Swiper the Fox that likes to steal); you can even argue that Seth is a ‘Silver Fox’ regarding his age.
Admittedly, this is all just fun and games, and maybe fans are just connecting dots that are purely a coincidence. But at this point, fans are convinced that these are cheeky references to Merced’s short run as a teenage Dora the Explorer.
We don’t know what other references to expect in The Last of Us Season 2, but just like the first season, the series is expanding on the story with more characters and shake-ups in the timeline.
Catch new The Last of Us episodes every Sunday night on Max.
