THE LAST OF US Built Giant Sets Because Calgary Looked Too Clean To Play Dystopian Boston
Pedro Pascal as Joel, Anna Torv as Tess and Bella Ramsey as Ellie filming The Last of Us on the Fourth Avenue Flyover, a major overpass heading into shiny downtown Calgary.
You can spot Calgary and Edmonton streets and overpasses playing post-apocalyptic Boston in the first two episodes of HBO’s new blockbuster series The Last of Us, but production designer John Paino told Vanity Fair that they generally found the streets too clean to play grimy neighbourhoods and lamented the lack of old factory areas, old shipping yards and even an abandoned gas station to shoot in.
It’s a very clean country. . .No American, uh, grit. — production designer John Paino.
Fort Macleod as Austin, Texas:
Finding Western-style towns was actually not that hard because there’s a really interesting similarity between Canadian and what I’ll call frontier architecture, where they have cattle runs and stuff. You can find towns like that. — production designer John Paino told Vanity Fair.
Filmed in Fort Macleod south of Calgary.
Giant set built for dystopian Boston’s Quarantine Zone:
The Last of Us had to build its Boston Quarantine Zone on some back lots in Calgary. It took about two months and the set deck with its “millions of wires” ran across the street and was up to 20 feet high with a concrete wall for people to walk on, production designer John Paino told Vanity Fair.
Calgary’s Fourth Avenue Flyover as an Overpass into Boston.
The Fourth Avenue Flyover overpass was shut down in October 2021 to film Joel, Tess and Ellie making their way into a dystopian Boston.
Pedro Pascal.
Update: Edmonton’s Alberta Legislature as Boston’s Massachusetts State House.
Boston’s Massachusetts State House with a gold dome.
Played by Edmonton’s Alberta Legislature Building.
Outside and inside.
The real challenge was downtown Boston. Brick-lined streets that were built during the Revolutionary War—that kind of look, and we looked very far and high and low for that, we couldn’t find it. So everywhere they walk, and pretty much everything around them for a good amount up to 20 feet, we dressed, we built, we dressed, we sculpted. We would make blisters that we added to the streets. – production designer John Paino told Vanity Fair.
Local photos:
Actors on set.
Lack of deciduous trees.
Let me tell you what kind of trees they have in Canada. And the crew made fun of me mercilessly. They have fir trees, Christmas trees. They don’t have any other trees. The greens were the hardest part because, not only did we have to have everything overgrown—deciduous trees are not common. Everything is pines and Douglas firs and things like that, and it’s gorgeous. But when we were doing Boston and we’re doing outside of Boston, that was one of the biggest challenges—just bringing in the proper greens. — production designer John Paino told Vanity Fair.
What’s The Last of Us about?:
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a fungal pandemic. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Showrunners: Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (who created the Video Game).
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey.
Episode 1 guest stars: Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Merle Dandridge.
Episode 2 guest stars: Anna Torv.
Next:
The Last of Us airs Sunday nights on HBO, HBO Max and Crave (in Canada).
