This past weekend, the second episode of HBO’s The Last Of Us premiered. While fans overall praised the episode, one moment truly stole the show. In a quick shot, a frog was seen sitting on a piano and this “piano frog” quickly became a fan favorite. Now the creator of both the series and the original video game, Neil Druckmann, has revealed some behind the scene information about the frog.The shot is simple, and yet so perfect. We see the frog sitting on the keys of a piano, it ribbits, accidentally pushes down on a key, then hops away, landing on more keys. Now, we have come to learn that it almost didn’t happen! In a tweet, Druckmann revealed that the piano frog was almost a piano bird. They planned to use a bird for the scene, but the animal wouldn’t cooperate. As Druckmann said, “Piano frog wouldn’t be a thing… if piano bird did its job! I guess everything happens for a reason. #TheLastOfUs” He then included an image of piano bird with the hands of its handler trying to keep it in place. Even in the single image, the bird does not look happy to be there, making the switch to the frog very understandable.What made the piano frog stick out so much is that it is a very cute moment in an otherwise dark and depressing series. The Last of Us is set twenty years after the fall of humanity due to a zombie-like apocalypse. It follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he escorts the last hope for a cure, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), across the ruins of the United States. There are not a lot of moments of levity to be found. So, when something as adorable as piano frog shows up, it truly grabs onto everyone’s hearts.
The Last of Us is based on the video game of the same name that was originally released in 2013. This adaptation is created by Druckmann and Craig Mazin. Druckmann is best known for his work on popular video games. He created the original The Last of Us game and its sequel and has also worked on the popular Uncharted game franchise. Mazin is best known for his Emmy-winning work as the creator and sole writer of HBO’s Chernobyl.Alongside Pascal and Ramsey, The Last of Us also features Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Storm Reid, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, and Melanie Lynskey. Druckman and Mazin also serve as executive producers on the series alongside Rose Lam, Asad Qizilbash, Carolyn Strauss, Carter Swan, and Evan Wells with Jacqueline Lesko serving as a co-executive producer. Producers on the series include Cecil O'Connor and Greg Spence.Check out Druckman’s full tweet and watch the trailer for The Last of Us below: