Meet Naboo, the giraffe who bonded with Ellie in The Last of Us Season 1 finale

HBO’s The Last of Us completed a highly successful first season on Sunday, with a shocking and emotional twist that made the viewers question their own morality. Game veterans were especially happy because a number of scenes from the game were faithfully brought to life in the series, including a scenic beauty that involved Ellie seeing a giraffe for the first time.

Was the giraffe that was used in The Last of Us real?

A number of sequences on the set were CGI, but fans would be surprised to know that the giraffe Ellie and Joel met was indeed a real one. In the bonus featurette that was released after the season finale, which brings out everything that the cast and the crew did to make the show, it was revealed that the giraffe who interacted with Ellie and warmed her up after her traumatic experience was not CGIed. The giraffe is named Naboo, and was borrowed from the Alberta zoo.

How did they train Naboo, the giraffe, on the set of The Last of Us?

Naboo would be brought onto the set to interact with the cast and the crew, and then slowly moved into an enclosure surrounded by green screens after he grew more comfortable. He grew very close to both Bella Ramsey (Ellie) and Pedro Pascal (Joel), who regularly fed and talked to him on the set. Bella goes on to describe her experience playing with Naboo as a spiritual one, and calls him a gentle giant.

What can we expect from The Last of Us Season 2?

Showrunner Craig Mazin teased the reporters about what’s to come in Season 2, “Sometimes it will be different radically and sometimes it will be barely different at all, but it’s going to be different and it will be its own thing. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make. We are making it with Bella.”