Was ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Really Filmed in Alaska?
True Detective: Night Country invites viewers into the unforgiving landscape of Ennis, Alaska, as detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) take on a perplexing mystery cloaked in freezing darkness. But was the show actually shot in Alaska? The answer might surprise you.
Despite being set in the remote Alaskan environment, the anthology series’ fourth season, helmed by Issa Lopez, was actually shot in Iceland, which serves as a solid stand-in for the remote northwest state. Foster opened up about the filming location during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where she revealed the reason behind the switch up.
(Credit: HBO)
“The area of Alaska that we needed to go to is sort of inaccessible,” she noted of the northern territory Ennis is supposed to be situated in. “They barely have any roads, and it would have been too difficult. The weather is much colder there than it is in Iceland, so we shot everything in Iceland, which couldn’t have been a more amazing, extraordinary place,” she added simply. To be more specific, the season was shot in Reykjavík, the capital of the country.
Filming took place between November 2022 and April 2023 in freezing temperatures, which fans will see Foster and Reis brave as the season continues to play out. As mentioned before, you won’t find Ennis on a map because the town was made up for the season, but it isn’t far off from the remote small towns one might find in Alaska, which experiences near-full days of night in the winter months.
One plus to the filming locale as well? Foster noted that she and the rest of the show’s team got to see the Northern Lights “all the time” while shooting.
For those who have yet to tune into Night Country, the story centers around the disappearance of eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Vanishing out of thin air, Danvers and Navarro must confront the darkness in themselves to uncover haunted truths about the case they’re dealing with now.
Don’t miss it unfold as True Detective: Night Country continues on HBO and Max.
True Detective: Night Country, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and Max
