The newest episode of The Last of Us, February twenty sixth’s “Left Behind,” was all about Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) time earlier than assembly Joel (Pedro Pascal).
Specifically, the majority of this episode reveals Ellie together with her greatest good friend, Riley (Storm Reid), as they’ve an enthralling romp by means of an deserted shopping center. Followers of Naughty Canine’s The Final of Us PlayStation sport will acknowledge this story from the downloadable enlargement, Left Behind. Now, we’ve realized a bit extra about how that setting got here collectively within the present.
Talking to Variety, John Paino, manufacturing designer on the acclaimed HBO collection, defined how the crew discovered an actual deserted mall in Calgary to make use of for the episode. Whereas Paino didn’t point out a selected title, Calgarians have identified it as Northland Village Mall, which closed in 2021 to be turned into an “open-air shopping centre.”
As Paino notes, the mall had been “fully stripped” and didn’t have a usable second ground. Nevertheless, those that have watched the episode will know {that a} two-story setup was key due to a cute scene involving an escalator. Due to this fact, the rooftops have been created utilizing CGI.
In the meantime, Paino’s group constructed 20-25 shops to show the dilapidated Canadian mall into an American one. That mentioned, a few of the fast-food joints obtained to play themselves, resembling A&W.
Elsewhere, Paino says the merry-go-round featured in a key scene needed to be introduced into the mall only for the shoot. “It really was in that mall, however when it went out of enterprise, one other mall took it, so we made a deal to hire it,” he mentioned.Lastly, there’s the arcade. As Paino factors out, the title and font of this spot (“Raja’s Arcade”) have been taken straight from the sport. This can be a enjoyable reference to a hot-headed character named Eddy Raja from one other beloved Naughty Canine collection, Uncharted.
Past that, although, the manufacturing group assembled a lineup of actual arcade cupboards, together with these for Frogger, Tetris and, most prominently, Mortal Kombat. Curiously, although, Paino says they really constructed LED shows for every sport as a result of their authentic cathode-ray tube (CRT) retro screens got here out blurry on their trendy cameras.
Naturally, seeing the outdated Calgary mall has introduced out some enjoyable reactions from viewers:
Good shot of Northland Village Mall’s meals courtroom in tonight’s episode of #TheLastOfUs @shop_northland #yyc pic.twitter.com/Nvl6oUSLk4
— Katt Hryciw (@KattHryciw) February 27, 2023
Northland Village Mall was a zombie mall a very long time earlier than The Final of Us!
— rissles (@slowseptember) February 27, 2023
The placement within the new #TheLastOfUs episode was the Northland Village Mall in Calgary! pic.twitter.com/jjFleNKofJ
— Moody | Filthy Canuck (@MoodyStepBro) February 27, 2023
After ‘Left Behind,’ solely two episodes of The Final of Us stay. Nevertheless, the collection has already been renewed for Season 2, which doesn’t but have a premiere window.
For extra on The Final of Us, try what Paino needed to say about transforming Canmore — Pascal and Ramsey’s favourite place in Alberta — into Jackson, Wyoming for the present. Earlier this 12 months, Paino additionally revealed how “shocked” he was to see how clean Alberta ended up being.
Picture credit score: HBO
Supply: Variety