Episode two of The Last of Us season 2 is a brutal and astonishing feat of television.
Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.chose to pair a massive horde of Infected attacking fortified Jackson in a snowstorm with the death of Pedro Pascal’s beloved Joel Miller outside its walls.
As a storm brews in the mountains, the people of Jackson Hole prepare for the worst amid increased sightings of Infected. Meanwhile, Abby weighs her options.
All of Jackson came together to fight off the invaders apart from Joel/Dina and Ellie/Jesse, out on patrols and stranded in the blizzard up in the mountains surrounding the town.
The episode, directed by Emmy-winning Mark Mylod, took more than a month and a half to shoot last February , March and April.
The battle sequence itself needed nearly four weeks of filming — broken into chunks — on the big Jackson set built on a gravel pit off the Sea to Sky Highway north of Vancouver.
Related: The Last of Us Season 2 Filming Location: Massive Jackson Set in British Columbia
The set in Minaty Bay is the equivalent of two full city blocks with cross streets, including the wall, gate, guard towers and 45 buildings built to various levels of internal finish, reports Vulture..
The wall, gate and guard towers are at the other end of the set.
Related: THE LAST OF US Season 2’s New Jackson Under Construction in British Columbia?
The logs I spotted on the ground in December 2023 became the wall.
Screencap of the wall.
Dozens of stunt performers, 100 Extras with prosthetics and 100s of digitally-added .Infected made up the horde of 1000 on screen, reports Vulture..
Since the attack happened during the day in a snowstorm but the Jackson set is at sea level, production faced endless rain during the shoot instead of real snow.
Crew had to cover the entire set in fake snow called Dolomite — Gabriel Luna described it as “white, flavourless Cheeto dust” to Vulture.
Gabriel Luna’s Tommy Miller led the defence of Jackson.
Screencap:
The wall held until an even bigger Bloater than last season broke through a section and the horde rampaged down Main Street.
Tommy blasted the Bloater with a flame thrower on Main Street.
But that didn’t seem big enough. for the show.
Four months later, Gabriel Luna returned to the Jackson set in the summer to shoot a new version of Tommy versus the Bloater in a section built for the face-off.
Today Gabriel Luna shared a photo of his triumph on Instagram.
You can see the Vancouver crew wearing shorts on the fake snow.
Related: How The Last of Us Staged a Subterranean Swarm of Infected & a Bloater in Calgary
The Last of Us Season 2:
Episodes: 7.
Working title: MEGA SWORD
B.C. filming dates: February 12 2024 – August 23 2024.
Additional photography in September 2024 and January 2025.
Alberta filming dates March 05 2024 – March 06 2024.
Alberta filming dates: March 18, 2024 – March 23, 2024.
Co-Creators/Writers: Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann.
Directors: Craig Mazin, Mark Mylod, Peter Hoar, Kate Herron, Stephen Williams, Neil Druckmann, Nina Lopez-Corrado.
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Kaitlyn Dever, Danny Ramirez, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Spencer Lord.
Guest stars: Catherine o”Hara, Jeffrey Wright, Joe Pantoliano, Alanna Ubach, Ben Ahlers, Hettienne Park, Robert John Burke, Noah Lamanna.
Production Designer: Don Macauley.
Art Director: Callum Webster.
Stunt coordinator Marny Eng.
Sound stages: The Bridge Studios.
