Albertans wanting to experience first-hand the scenes from the big-budget television series The Last of Us — minus the Hollywood stars and deadly fungus — have a new tool at their disposal.
Travel Alberta created an interactive map detailing all the Alberta locations featured in the series, updating the map each week with locations spotted in the latest episode.
The show is the biggest ever filmed in Alberta, and its first episode surpassed 22 million viewers in North America.
“There’s a cultural moment happening right now,” Tannis Gaffney, chief marketing officer at Travel Alberta, told CBC’s The Homestretch.
“I definitely think a lot of locals and Alberta residents are really proud of having this production, this amazing high-end production come to the province. We’re getting lots of comments from locals, lots of support, lots of enthusiasm. Everyone’s just really proud.”
Recognizable locations include the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton and the Fourth Avenue Flyover in Calgary. But the map includes other less obvious locations, including a Fort Macleod barbershop and the interior of a northwest Calgary restaurant.
There are lots of dots in and around Calgary and Edmonton, Gaffney said, but she hopes the map will eventually form an itinerary across the province that people can tour.
The shot list is under wraps, Gaffney said, but the Monday after a new episode airs, Travel Alberta works to identify where the scenes took place.
“What we’ve been trying to do is try to figure out where those anchor experiences are, where the really recognizable monuments are,” Gaffney said.
“But at the same time, you know, there’s a lot of locations that were on private land … so a lot of set development and other places that the public wouldn’t be able to access. So it’s been quite tricky.”
Historic buildings, including the Bell Block on Macleod Trail, can be seen in the series.
Josh Traptow, chief executive officer at Heritage Calgary, said between the The Last of Us and Fargo (which also filmed many scenes in Calgary) a number of the city’s heritage buildings have made their way onto people’s screens.
“Especially The Last of Us, we saw a large number of heritage buildings being featured,” he said.
He thinks that as the show progresses, it will pique more people’s interest in those buildings.
WATCH | ‘It’s Pedro Pascal,’ The Last of Us shooting shuts down Calgary streets:
A TV production based on the video game The Last of Us, recently turned the Fourth Avenue flyover into a post-apocalyptic movie set. It drew a crowd of curious onlookers, trying to catch a glimpse of the show’s stars and a zombie or two.
“In my circle of friends and my staff’s circle of friends, we’ve all definitely noticed kind of a pickup of … people that we know posting a story on Instagram or sharing something online about a local site that was in Calgary and a lot of them have been heritage buildings,” Trapow said.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to showcase Calgary as a filming destination, and then I think there’s going to be some more modern buildings that are going to be featured.”
The Last of Us was renewed Friday for a second season on HBO.
There was no official word on if the production will return to Alberta.
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