HBO quietly fixes editing errors which fans slammed in latest The Last of Us episode

It's been years since some eagle-eyed fans spotted the infamous Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones, but HBO is at it again with some not-so-thorough editing for The Last of US.

The network has recently resorted to some post-transmission emergency snipping after fans of the survival drama - led by Pedro Pascal and GoT's very own Bella Ramsey - slammed a few errors.

Inspired by the video game of the same name, The Last of Us follows The Mandalorian star as protagonist Joel. A smuggler, he reluctantly accepts to escort teenage Ellie (Ramsey) in the middle of a global pandemic caused by a fungal infection, while also looking for his brother Tommy (Diego Luna).

After spotting the crew in one shot, Twitter user @rejectedhannah flagged another mistake that HBO has since corrected.

Spoiler for episode six of The Last of Us, so you may want to stop reading now if you haven't watched that one just yet.

In the show's latest episode, titled 'Kin', Joel and Ellie reunite with Tommy in Jackson, Wyoming. At the town's stables, Ellie befriends a horse named Shimmer, who fans of the video game will recognise from an appearance in The Last of Us Part II.

And that's where things got awkward, as viewers didn't fail to point out on social media.

As Ellie is stroking the horse, whose head is poking out of the stable, another hand can be seen propping up Shimmer's chin.

Twitter had a field day after noticing the error, with fans of the show reacting to it.

The hand… who edited this episode 😭 pic.twitter.com/nSPPbD6yga

— Bella Ramsey emmy campaign manager (@rejectedhannah) February 22, 2023

"I'm sorry editing mistakes like this will always never be serious to me, I'm going to laugh every time," the original poster wrote.

A second person added: "Almost certainly one of those 'no one is gonna notice, we can keep it' type of things, but they forgot the Internet clips every half a second of footage of stuff they like."

"Obviously it was Ellie's other hand extending under the frame of the camera like Mr. Fantastic," another person wrote.

Possibly belonging to a horse trainer, the hand has been swiftly edited out following fans' complaints.

Reddit users have been more lenient towards the honest mistake made in the editing room, with one person writing: "Stuff like these makes me realise how hard it is to edit movies and shows. You literally have to see everything frame by frame."

This isn't the first instance in which fans helped editors identify errors.

The Game of Thrones cup was promptly edited out of episode 4, season 8, for example.

Similarly, Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers, admitted they would go back and change a line from Winona Ryder's character Joyce Byers in season 2 to fix a continuity error.

In the second chapter, Joyce says Will's (Noah Schnapp) birthday is on 22 March, but in season 4, a calendar shows that exact same date, with no one acknowledging Will's special day. The writers and directors behind Netflix's sci-fi drama revealed they would alter the original line so that Joyce says Will's birthday is on 22 May, instead of 22 March.

The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US. In the UK, viewers can watch it on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.