How The Last of Us built the town of Jackson

The sixth episode of The Last of Us brings Ellie and Joel to Jackson, a settlement in Wyoming that seems free from the horror that has befallen much of the rest of the world. Here, people have running water, working electricity, stables and greenhouses; they even have a big Christmas tree in the town square! For a survivor of the zombie apocalypse, it’s about as close to paradise as you can get.

“Up until this point, we’ve had a lot of concrete, and there was a desire to be out in the Midwest, with all the natural beauty and the fresh air that you can find in the middle of America,” production designer John Paino told the Los Angeles Times.

That said, the episode — “Kin” — was actually shot in the small Canadian town of Canmore “The buildings there have a real rustic feel, and this beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains at the end of its main street,” said Paino. Details abound. “The barbecue place where Joel and Ellie have their first meal, it’s decorated with banners that might have been made by the children of the community. And things that are repaired around town, they’re not just put together like in the QZ but they’re built to last, because the people there aren’t cannibalizing each other and actually look out for each other.”

"We’re playing a bit into the mythos of Americans pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, but we wanted it to be clear and even refreshing that Jackson is a long-term settlement. There’s hope there; they’re proud of what they’ve done."

Why did The Last of Us change Jackson?

Ellie and Joel do visit Jackson in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us video game, but there the town is much more rustic and less developed. The version we see on the HBO show is much closer to how the show looks in the game’s sequel, The Last of Us Part 2.

Variety asked director Jasmila Žbanić why the show made this change. “I didn’t really talk about it, because for me it was very natural,” she said. “What we talked a lot about was that I survived the war in Sarajevo in the ’90s. I think for [showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann], it was interesting that I was kind of living in a place which was like Jackson in a way, because we were surrounded by the Serbian army, we were constantly bombarded. We had to be on alert, we had to survive, we had to learn how to live without anything, without civilization. There was no electricity, no food, nothing. But we managed to survive because of solidarity, and the way the city was restructured.”

"I was talking a lot with Neil about all the atmosphere of the city and what he had in mind, and what is also not there. There are some elements that Craig added to the whole piece. I was also talking to a lot of gamers. I always ask, ‘What do they want to see? What do you expect from the game?’ They would be saying to keep these emotions and atmosphere."

Pedro Pascal cried on The Last of Us even when he didn’t have to

Jackson is the setting for some key scenes in both games, some of which we already saw in Episode 6. “After the complete collapse of civilization, and all the horror of quarantine zones and destroyed major cities, for Joel and Ellie to see a functioning society is very shocking for them,” Žbanić said. “They’re confronted with things that Ellie has never experienced, and everything is a miracle for her.”

"This script gave the actors the space to show all their entire palettes of emotions, to be sad and scared and loving and laughing. For our two main characters, Jackson reveals these huge emotions of how to go on. They enter as Joel and Ellie, and they exit as completely different people. They are changed by this society."

Joel and Ellie certainly did run the gamut of emotions in the latest episode. The scene between Joel and his brother Tommy, where Joel begs him to take Ellie to the Firefly base, was particularly emotional, thanks in no small part to Pedro Pascal’s work as Joel. “[F]irst we filmed Gabriel, and then I noticed that each time we repeated, Pedro was crying,” Žbanić said. “He was not on camera, but he was crying because he was giving his partner everything so that he can act. This is very special. It’s so generous of an actor to do this so deep. I was amazed by Pedro’s talent.”

The brutal heart-to-heart between Joel and Ellie was also a highlight, when she brings up Joel’s dead daughter Sarah and he tells her that he isn’t her dad. It’s basically their breakup scene, and Žbanić was affected even behind the camera. “It was so emotional. Sometimes I would be crying behind the camera because they were so truthful and beautiful,” she said. “This relationship is so touching. I really like that it’s changing from the beginning to the end. It’s just one episode, but it has so many changes of their relationship, which is really great.”

And there are more changes to come. Catch new episodes of The Last of Us on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 CST on HBO and HBO Max.

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