to play Dina. Johnson recalled that the team had narrowed the potential cast to around four actors. After testing with Woodward, Johnson felt that they immediately had chemistry; Woodward was later cast as the character. Woodward felt that some people deal with trauma through comedy, and would often improvise jokes while recording. As a narrative function, Dina represented the community of Jackson, and what Ellie stood to lose from her revenge mission. Her presence allowed Ellie moments of light. Gross had originally written an extended monologue for Ellie to perform to Dina about her fear of ruining their friendship. Originally in development, Lev was not transgender. An early pitch was for Yara (portrayed by Victoria Grace) to be transgender, but Druckmann preferred to keep her a more traditional follower of the Seraphites. Queer and transgender employees of Naughty Dog gave input on the character, and the team consulted with an LGBTQ scholar. When the developers reached out to acting agencies to cast for the character, they found that none represented transgender actors. Some members of the team were fans of The OA (2016–2019), which starred Ian Alexander; though he was not represented by an agency at the time, Alexander was invited by Druckmann to audition. When exploring the idea of making Lev transgender, the team found it to be an interesting look into the violence that can be found within organized religion. Alexander was attracted to the role as he underwent similar emotions when transitioning, having come from a religious background and also receiving backlash after cutting his hair. He felt that Lev has been forced to grow up due to his surroundings. Despite some hesitation, the team determined that Lev's deadname being used by the Seraphites demonstrated the difference between their transphobia and Abby and Yara's acceptance. The team hired a religious consultant to ensure the Seraphites' response to Lev's transition was accurate without being unintentionally offensive. Druckmann considered Lev among the most important characters as he represents the same innocence that Ellie did in the first game. Technical and gameplay development The developers pushed the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 4 when creating Part II, adding more enemies and larger environments than in previous games. Druckmann noted that any drops in detail would ruin the game's authenticity, which required consistent optimization of the technology. The team created a new animation technique called "motion mapping" for the characters, which