The Last of Us Part II’s release date trailer gave us our first proper look at the first game’s protagonist, Joel, as he appears in the upcoming sequel. And given Joel’s relative absence in footage so far, as well as in the more than two hours I played of The Last of Us Part II, I was curious if that implied a downsized role or importance in the sequel.

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So while speaking to Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog Vice President and Creative Director of The Last of Us Part 2, I asked whether we should take Joel’s smaller role so far as indicative of his importance to Ellie in the sequel. Watch the video above to see his full response, plus some new gameplay from the sequel.“Their relationship is strained. Some of it is because teenagers will be teenagers, and some of it is because of their history, which is why you haven’t seen them together a lot,” he said. “So much of The Last of Us is about this duo and their dynamic and how they are together, how they play together. I will say Joel plays a major part of this game.”And while Joel and Ellie’s father-daughter relationship is a core aspect of the franchise, Last of Us Part II’s promotional efforts so far have put Ellie’s burgeoning romance with Dina front and center. From the E3 2018 preview to one of the two levels I demoed, the pair has become a key part of Ellie’s new life.“Dina lived in Jackson before Ellie moved in at the end of the first game. Once Ellie moves into Jackson, we’re picking up the story years later, Dina has become Ellie’s best friend,” Druckmann said of their relationship. “And they’re part of this crew that go out on these patrols. They hang out, Jackson has electricity [so] they watch movies. They live a teenage life.“And not only that, these characters have been very flirty with each other, and now that Dina’s single, the demo you saw at E3 [2018], we saw this festival where the two characters kissed for the first time ...where we’re coming in for [the new demo], Ellie’s not sure where Dina stands.”Druckmann explained that Ellie and Dina’s relationship took such prominence during this recent demo to demonstrate the “complexity” of their bond.“It was important for us to show [in the demo] the complexity of that relationship. It’s these really sweet, tender moments of levity, to show how capable Dina is,” he said.The recent release date trailer has led many to believe that this love may be cut short, however. While Druckmann remained coy about Dina’s fate, or whatever character’s fate is implied to take a terrible turn in the trailer, he did explain how this moment sets Ellie on the journey of this sequel.“...This event happens to Ellie that just disrupts all of that, and she has to dig in deep to that survivor and say ‘These people cannot get away with this,’” he explained, later noting in our chat that “I’ll just say Dina plays a major part in the game.”For more on the sequel, be sure to read our in-depth, hands-on preview of The Last of Us Part 2 , and check out what Druckmann had to say about The Last of Us Part 2 being Naughty Dog's biggest game yet

Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond, and he thinks about the finale to the original The Last of Us at least once a week. Talk to him about his demo on Twitter @jmdornbush