More often than not, the ‘video game adaptation curse’ plagues movies and shows borrowing from gaming IP. This April was no exception with the release of the expectedly polarising A Minecraft Movie. But the TV and streaming space offers more hope with The Last of Us season 2 this month.
Cue Gustavo Santaolalla’s melancholic guitar theme...
What is The Last of Us season 2 about?
The Emmy-winning HBO series returns with Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie navigating a post-apocalyptic America ravaged by fungal-infected zombies, fanatical religious orders and militaristic factions.
Set five years after season 1, the second season adapts the Naughty Dog game The Last of Us Part II with Joel and Ellie adapting to their new life in Jackson, Wyoming. With Joel still confronting his guilt over his violent frenzy in the tear-jerking finale, Ellie becomes absorbed with new love interests and ideological struggles. True to the source material, Jackson is a safe zone, while the Washington city of Seattle has become a war zone.
‘We start to see how groups that are united by love can begin to identify as “us” and see everybody else as “them”, explains showrunner Craig Mazin of the new season’s themes. ‘Tribalism is a love among a few or maybe many. For Jackson, their tribe is the community. It’s everything inside the wall.’
Filming locations in Canada
Canada’s wintery landscape again provides the HBO series with dystopian doom and gloom. However, unlike season 1, filming mostly shifted from Alberta to British Columbia this time. Some locations in Alberta were still retained for the early stages of filming along with some post-production photography.
To recreate the community-based living in Jackson and the violent mayhem in Seattle, the crew relied on wide scale practical sets along with giving a gritty makeover to many real-world locations. Here’s how and where they did it.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver’s locations are where audiences can witness clashes involving the brutal paramilitary group Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites, a cult-like collective mastering stealth warfare and communicating in whistle-like signals.
Canada’s third-largest city stands in for a war-torn Seattle in the second season. Filming took place in May 2024, with Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside occupied by soldiers and military vehicles. Other Vancouver areas used to recreate Seattle included the Chinatown neighbourhood, the 405-hectare public park Stanley Park, and the 98-year-old Orpheum theatre. (The Orpheum was previously featured in the Battlestar Galactica reboot as a heavenly opera house.) Gastown, the oldest commercial district of Vancouver and the core of the city, was also used, and additional photography took place at the Vancouver Aquarium in January.
Nanaimo, British Columbia
Prep on the new season kicked off in Nanaimo, a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island that’s nicknamed ‘The Harbour City’. The city provides the backdrop for some of the Seattle scenes. A leaked video from May 2024 offered a sneak peek at Bella Ramsey and co-star Isabela Merced on horseback. Both cast members had guns in hand, while web sleuths were quick to reveal the identity of the brown steed Ramsey was riding. Turns out the horse, Shimmer, is a celebrity in his own right, having previously trotted his way into Jurassic World Dominion and sci-fi series The 100.
The horseback scenes are set in the backdrop of Seattle’s Capitol Hill and the fictional Serevana Hotel. In the game, the hotel serves as an outpost for the WLF militias.
Britannia Beach
The town of Jackson was constructed at Britannia Beach, 40 or so miles north of Vancouver. The 300-strong town’s remote location was ideal from the wooden sets used to build the settlement. While Calgary, Alberta stood in for Jackson in the first season, Britannia Beach doubled for the wintry Wyoming town this time.
Calgary, Alberta
The Last of Us has had a rich relationship with Alberta, with season 1 being the largest television project to be filmed here. Even as season 2 shifted to British Columbia, it still used previous Alberta locations – including the city of Calgary.
Numerous westerns have been shot in the city, including Unforgiven and The Revenant. Predator spin-off Prey and the TV series Fargo have filmed there too.
Exshaw, Alberta
The Albertan hamlet of Exshaw was also used in season 2 for scenes that required more snowy environments. The crew also shot at Highway 1A on which Exshaw serves as a major intersection. The highway was partially closed for three days with the crew filming the season’s snow-covered sequences.
Snow was specifically brought in from surrounding areas to make the area look all the more wintry. As location manager Laszlo Uhrik told the local newspaper Western Wheel: ‘For our purposes, if there’s a massive snowstorm two days before we film, we’d be so happy. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll have to drag some snow in and set it up.’
Mission, Fort Langley, and Langley, British Columbia
The cities of Mission and Langley along with the village community Fort Langley were some of the other British Columbia locations that were used to replicate Jackson, Wyoming in season 2. Compared to Vancouver, Langley is much cheaper for filming as the go-to site for numerous Hallmark movies and other direct-to-video material.
New Westminster, British Columbia
Filming took place for a day at New Westminster, or as the Canadians call it ‘New West’. A 20-minute drive from Vancouver, New West has appeared in movies and shows like the 2014 Godzilla remake, I, Robot, Riverdale, and The X-Files.
Who is cast in The Last of Us season 2?
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey return as Joel and Ellie, survivors of the fungal pandemic who developed an unexpected parent-child bond in the course of the first season. Some familiar faces return like Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy Miller and Rutina Wesley as Maria, leader of the Jackson survivors and Tommy’s wife.
The ensemble cast’s new additions include Kaitlyn Dever (Unbelievable, Dopesick) as vengeance-seeking soldier Abby, Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) as Ellie’s new love interest Dina, and comedy favourite Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek) breaking typecast as Joel’s introspective therapist Gail. The Matrix and The Sopranos bad guy Joe Pantoliano plays Gail’s husband Eugene while Beef breakout star Young Mazino is Jesse, an idealistic survivor fighting for the community of Jackson.
Interestingly, Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction, Westworld) who played Isaac Dixon in motion-capture for the original video game, reprises his role in the TV adaptation. His character is a ruthless leader of a militia faction in Washington who brews trouble for Joel and his allies.
When is the The Last of Us season 2 out?
The season’s seven-episode run airs weekly on HBO and Max for US audiences and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK. The first episode premieres at 9pm ET/PT on April 13 in the US, and at 2am on April 14 in the UK.