On Location: ‘The Last of Us’ Follows Joel and Ellie Across an Apocalyptic America That’s Actually Canada

Lifting the curtain on some of the season’s most exciting new releases.

The crumbling world of The Last of Us resembles modern-day America only in traces. The series, based on the popular dystopian video game, imagines remnant versions of major cities like Boston, Kansas City, and Jackson, Wyoming. To bring the game’s story to the screen, production designer John Paino utilized a whopping 180 locations, primarily in Alberta, Canada.

Over nine episodes, Joel (Pedro Pascal) escorts Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across dangerous stretches of the United States, encountering rogue gangs, cannibals, and the zombie-like infected along the way. While the majority of the interior sets were built on sound stages in Calgary, the exteriors were shot on location in places like High River, Canmore, Waterton Lakes National Park, and Mount Royal University. Some are recognizable, but most were altered to suit the aesthetic of the show. Paino says, “Everything had to be changed or decorated in some way. I can’t think of a single location we used [as it was].”

The Last of Us follows Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal, not pictured) across a disease-torn United States. In reality, the production spanned the Canadian territory of Alberta.

Courtesy Warner Bros.

We sat down with Paino to discuss some of the key sets—the snowy, cannibal-run town of Silver Lake, an abandoned mall that offers a glimpse of Ellie’s past, and the memorable spot where Ellie meets her first giraffe.

The sets in the show evoke the American West, but where did you actually film?

We shot in and around Calgary, and also in Edmonton, for when they’re leaving Boston proper. Most of the series takes place in the middle of America, so we wanted places that could fill in. We used a sliver of downtown Calgary for Kansas City. When they’re ambushed and crash into the laundromat, that’s really Calgary.

The third episode, “Long, Long Time,” has really stuck with people. Where was Bill’s house located?

We built that from scratch in Beechwood Estates in High River. There was a flood zone and a bunch of the houses had been torn down. It needed to evoke New England in its style. Calgary has a lot of pine trees, and New England does as well. It looked great.

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Many of the series’ wilderness scenes were shot in Waterton Lakes National Park around Calgary.

Courtesy Warner Bros.

Did you also build the cul-de-sac where Joel and Ellie have a showdown with Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) and a mass of infected?

That was all built. We couldn’t find run-down areas of Canada—they really don’t exist. [At least not] with houses that feel like they are American architecture too. Those houses were all three-sided. The house where Joel runs up the stairs and shoots from was a full build. We added plants growing through them.

Where did you find the tunnels that Joel and Ellie used to escape Kansas City?

We scouted this tunnel under a brewery, the Old Inglewood Brewery, in Calgary, which has since closed. We extended some of the tunnels and added a big swinging door, like in the game. But this was where all the brewing tanks were. It was eerie and perfect for what we needed.

What stood in for Jackson, Wyoming?

Jackson was a real town called Canmore, in Alberta. The most important thing was, when you look down the street in Jackson, you can see the Rocky Mountains. In Canmore, you could look down the street and see the Canadian Rockies, which has the same effect. We created a few buildings, and built the log wall around it.

The gutted Northland Village Mall briefly saw the return of its original carousel for the production of “Left Behind.”

Courtesy Warner Bros.

In Jackson, Joel and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) go to an Old West-style bar to talk. Where did you find that bar?

The bar was actually in a re-creation town at the Wainwright Hotel at Heritage Park. It was an old-timey bar that fit the Western rustic thing. We built walls to close the room into a more intimate space. It’s pretty common to add things for the camera to shoot through or to use for blocking. And, of course, the show is set 20 years ago, so you don’t want any anachronism. You don’t want a TV on the wall that’s from 2022. Everything had to be stripped down and dirty. History stopped, in essence, and nothing’s been invented since then.

Did you use a real mall in the episode “Left Behind” with Riley (Storm Reid)?

We used an actual mall, the Northland Village Mall, that was about to be torn down. It was completely gutted, including the store fronts, so we built everything. The art department brought in the stores, the plants, even the carousel—and we had to get the electricity going again. It only had one floor, so the second floor, where they enter, was created separately and then added with VFX. The merry-go-round used to actually be in that mall, but it was moved to a horse jumping place called Spruce Meadows. We had it transported in for the episode.

Paino compares Alberta’s landscape to that of the American Rockies, and notes that Ellie’s first experiences of the world come as nature once again becomes Earth’s dominant force.

Courtesy Warner Bros.

The town of Silver Lake, Colorado is a particularly creepy place. Was that a real location?

That is a real resort town called Waterton and it’s boarded up in the winter. So it was perfect for us. When we were there, it was pretty miserable. The snow was real, although some of it was moved around for the camera. You could see how people would resort to cannibalism in a place like that. Some of the interiors, like the steak house, we built. We used a few of the cabin interiors there, but for the fire and the stunts it was easier to do it on our own sets.

Joel and Ellie traverse a lot of landscape during season one. Where did you shoot all of the wilderness?

We used Waterton Lakes National Park and towns around Calgary. Alberta is gigantic and we literally crossed it. The natural beauty of Alberta is breathtaking. It’s like going to the American Rockies, especially in the wintertime. Ellie is seeing the world for the first time, and nature is reclaiming the planet.

The caves upon which Ellie sleeps were built in a parking lot, as there was nothing at a suitable height that could be shot on location.

Courtesy Warner Bros.

Does the hospital in the finale exist in real life?

We actually found an abandoned hospital in a town that was pretty far away, Grande Prairie. It was a town that was originally an oil and gas town, way west of Calgary.

In one of the finale’s more uplifting scenes, Ellie meets a family of roaming giraffes. How did that come together?

There are three giraffes at the Calgary Zoo, and we slowly introduced pieces of green screen and scenery into their enclosure. To create the shot, the characters went from a construction site in Calgary into a set we built on a stage into a balcony in the giraffes’ enclosures. The zookeepers got them acclimated to come and eat some food from strangers, who were Bella and Pascal.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler