HBO's The Last of Us used real, trained giraffes for that scene

One of the most iconic moments in all of The Last of Us: Part I is when Joel and Ellie meet wandering giraffes when arriving in Salt Lake City towards the end of the game. With the HBO Max TV series now wrapped up, the final episode gave us that very moment and as for how the production company looked to tackle it as authentically as possible, Variety has now revealed that real, trained giraffes were used.

According to the report, the scene used a variety of a VFX stage, scenery, and a location shoot with real giraffes from the Calagary Zoo. Apparently, the team brought a small film crew and had to acclimate the giraffes to feel comfortable with being fed by strangers (Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey).

It ended up taking a month and a half to prepare and then film that scene, as the giraffes had to be trained to also be comfortable with an enclosure that was covered by green screen panels. According to production designer John Paino, this was the "most complicated piecing of VFX stage, scenery, and location" he has ever worked on.

What did you think about the iconic moment in the recent finale of The Last of Us?