Season 2 of HBO’s smash hit series The Last of Us picked Nanaimo on Vancouver Island to play the overgrown and abandoned Seattle neighbourhood of Capitol Hill that we know from the video game.
In real-life, Capitol Hill is a diverse district centred around Volunteer Park where Seattle’s gay community and others enjoy local cafes, high-end restaurants and stores.
But The Last of Us takes place 20+ years after a fungal pandemic turned infected people into monsters aka fungus zombies and pitted survivors against one another.
Film crew is busy transforming Nanaimo’s Skinner Street:: adding murals and frayed and weathered Capitol Hill banners circa 2003, the year modern civilization came to a halt.
Two characters are expected to ride down Skinner Street on horseback.
At the bottom of the hill, crew has built an abandoned coffee house set in the Diana Krall Plaza on Commercial Street.
Cherry Street Coffee House is a real place in Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Producers must have obtained permission to use the logo.
There are five more days of prep work before cameras roll on Monday, May 13th and Tuesday, May 14th. See the Filming Notice below.
How overgrown can it get?
What is The Last of Us?
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 teen 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.
In season 2, we meet some new characters like Ellie’s new friend Dina (Isabela Merced) and scout Jesse (Young Mazino) in Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel and Ellie settle after the events of season one. Later Ellie and Dina travel to Seattle.
In season 2, we also meet a group of former Fireflies who’ve joined the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) militia group in Seattle: soldier Abby Anderson (Kaitlyn Dever), who’s seeking vengeance for someone she loved, soldier Manny (Danny Ramirez), doctor Mel (Ariela Barer), military medic Nora (Tati Gabrielle) and Owen (Spencer Lord).
The Last of Us Season 2:
Working title: MEGA SWORD
B.C. filming dates: February 12 2024 – August 21 2024.
Co-Creators/Writers: Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann.
Directors: Craig Mazin, Mark Mylod, Kate Herron, Peter Hoar, Stephen Williams, Nina Lopez-Corrado.
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Kaitlyn Dever, Young Mazino, Isabela Merced, Catherine O’Hara, Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley, Danny Ramirez, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Spencer Lord.
Sound stages: Bridge Studios.
Season 2 of The Last of Us is expected to premiere on HBO in 2025.
Nanaimo Filming Notice:
