The giraffe in The Last Of Us season 1 finale was very real

While The last of us In the season finale, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) recreate an iconic moment from the critically acclaimed video game as they stumble across a giraffe while searching for the Fireflies camp in Salt Lake City. Ellie is the first to spot the creature and Joel joins her as the two marvel at the sight while standing on the open ledge in a collapsed building. Soon, the two are feeding and even petting the animal in a touching scene that fans of the game have been waiting for all season.

However, in a surprising twist, the giraffe in the scene is actually real. Audiences today are so used to CGI creatures that many assumed the animal was created in a computer, but not so much. While the giraffe’s surroundings were digitally added, Pascal and Ramsey worked on the scene with the Real Deal. According to production designer John Paino, it wasn’t an easy task for him and visual effects supervisor Alex Wang during the tight deadline.

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“The trainers worked to get her to eat from a stranger’s hand. So when Ellie and Joel come to the enclosure, that’s the giraffe eating those food branches,” says Paino. “It’s Hollywood magic when Alex isolates the giraffes and brings them to our set. This was probably the most complicated VFX set, scenery and location I have ever worked on.”

Apparently their work paid off. The season finale garnered huge ratings for HBO, and the giraffe scene was praised almost everywhere in the episode’s reviews. You crushed it.

The last of us Season 1 is available to stream on HBO Max.

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