The summer filming season is in full swing in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, as well as Calgary and southern Alberta. There are lights, cameras, and actors wandering around in heroic tights or period costumes everywhere you look.
You might be surprised to find that some of your favorite shows are made right here in the great white Hollywood North. With such varied terrain, Vancouver and Calgary are a natural to sub in for any world wide setting. So the next time you’re wandering around town and think you see Katie, Scully, the wicked Queen or a zombie, your eyes are not necessarily deceiving you!
Filming in Vancouver
The Flash (TV)
Based on the DC Comic book hero, the Flash is a red-garbed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move, well, like a flash. The series has been filmed around Vancouver since 2014, and is a very popular show on The CW network.
Once Upon a Time (TV)
The ABC series that’s transformed quaint and (formerly) quiet Steveston Village in Richmond into Storybrooke, Maine, where the residents are really characters from various fairy tales. Now in its fifth season, the popular fantasy drama features Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin (with my fave, Robert Carlyle), and a host of other magical family tale creatures. The addition of Frozen characters like Elsa has kept the magic storyline flowing along. Season 5 resumes in September 2015.
Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
While the very well-known Walking Dead is filmed in Georgia in the American South, this newest zombie apocalypse prequel series has Vancouver fronting for Los Angeles. How did the world look as it morphed into a horror zombie wasteland? Find out (if you’re not too frightened) when the show debuts on AMC on August 23rd.
Arrow (TV)
This CW series details the adventures of a billionaire playboy by day, who transforms into DC Comics hero Green Arrow by night. The arrow refers to our hero’s weapon of choice in fighting crime as a secret vigilante – a bow and arrow. A fourth season is set to begin this summer/fall.
X-Files (TV)
The world of Trusting No One is back and filming in Vancouver. Will Fox Mulder and Dana Scully find appeal with a new audience, in their struggle to understand the supernatural forces at work in our lives? The new X-Files episodes will be featured in a miniseries beginning in January 2016 on Fox.
Filming in Calgary
Heartland (TV)
A Canadian series, based in a Canadian setting and filmed in the Alberta Rockies. The CBC series, now in its ninth season, details the struggles and triumphs of life on a horse ranch (Heartland) in cattle country. The main characters, sisters Amy and Lou Fleming, help heal abused and neglected horses in this heart-warming and popular family drama.
Fargo (TV)
You may remember the 1996 Coen brothers black comedy-crime drama film. (I’ve avoided wood chippers ever since.) The FX Network TV series of the same name, which premiered in 2014, revisits Minnesota with an award-winning cast depicting similar stories of violence, deception and malice. The second season begins September 2015.
The Revenant (Film)
Based on a book by Michael Punke, the Revenant is a Western revenge story partially based on the life of 19th century frontiersman. It stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hardy. The movie was filmed in Alberta and parts of BC, and is set to be released in December 2015.
