Popverse's top stories of the day

• Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* movie puts the final nail in the coffin for the Joss Whedon-era superhero film
• MEMBERS ONLY: Popverse Jump: A love letter to the Yu Yu Hakusho English dub - the first great dub Funimation made
• WATCH NOW: Hazbin Hotel's Alex Brightman talks Broadway, Beetlejuice, and whether or not he has an extra vocal cord at Emerald City Comic Con!

Isabela Merced didn't know how important her character, Dina, would be to The Last of Us season 2 until well after she started playing her. Though she was familiar with the character from The Last of Us Part II game, her idea of the relationship this Dina would have to series lead Ellie (Bella Ramsey) was considerably smaller than she envisioned. And as if that wasn't enough of an adjustment, Merced had to leap into the role with surprisingly little prep time thanks to a different project she was working on - that is, this summer's Superman, in which Merced portrays Shayera Hol, AKA Hawkgirl.

Merced was forthcoming about her quick, intense introduction to the role in a recent interview with Variety, which ran on May 4, the same day that The Last of Us season 2, episode 4 aired. In particular, Merced was asked about building up the relationship between her character and Ramsey's offscreen, to which the actor responded by talking about her Superman schedule.

"Honestly, we didn’t really get a chance to build [the relationship]," Merced told her interviewer. "We were doing a lot of prep prior to the season and shooting it, and I was also filming Superman at the same time as the show. I was doing mostly physical training. Bella was doing physical training, stunts training [...] So we really didn’t get much time to get there. I was just like, 'OK, well, it is what it is.'"

A professional like Merced prefers stepping into a role well-prepared, especially one that requires such an established dynamic as the one we see between Dina and Ellie. Naturally, this meant that the first couple of days of filming had the Alien: Romulus actor feeling nervous.

"Day zero we went in," Merced continues, "We shot that first scene where Dina comes to get Ellie for patrol and makes fun of her Converse. And Craig [Mazin, showrunner] was super excited from that moment on. But I don’t think that was the day my anxiety was relieved. I think the day that my anxiety was relieved was during the camera test, and it just felt really right."

Of course, most folks who've been keeping up with The Last of Us season 2 would say that the Ellie/Dina relationship is coming through just fine, despite the little prep time the actors got thanks to Superman. It's a comforting lesson for would-be actors out there that, if the trust you form with your scene partner is strong enough, you can make up for lost time.

Or maybe the moral of this story is that playing Hawkgirl makes you able to do anything. Either way, it's good to hear.

The Last of Us season 2 airs new episodes every Sunday night on HBO/Max. Star Isabela Merced flies into theaters with Superman July 11.

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.