Outer Banks filming locations: Where Netflix teen drama is set
Everything you need to know about the filming locations featured in this Netflix teen drama.
Teen drama Outer Banks charmed audiences with its coastal setting and boat-loving residents when it arrived on Netflix last April and now it's back with a long-awaited second season.
Set in North Carolina, Outer Banks follows a group of working class teens living at The Cut as they search for the missing father of John B (Chase Stokes), the group's leader.
But is The Cut a real place? And did the show actually film in North Carolina?
Here's everything you need to know about Outer Banks filming locations as season two arrives on our screens.
Where is Outer Banks set?
The Netflix drama is set on a fictional town and island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which is where the show gets its name from. The Outer Banks are a string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and Virginia which separate the Atlantic Ocean from Currituck and Albemarle Sounds and Pamlico Sound.
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They're a popular tourist attraction thanks to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which is an important biodiversity zone, and the large amount of beachfront open to the public.
There are seven islands found within the Outer Banks: Currituck Banks, Bodie Island, Roanoke Island, Hatteras Island, Ocracoke Island, Core Banks and Bogue Banks – all of which are home to various parks and national wildlife refuges.
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Where is Outer Banks filmed?
While there were originally plans to film Outer Banks in the real-life Outer Banks area – Wilmington, North Carolina – Netflix decided not to film there due to the state's House Bill 2 legislation which requires transgender to use the bathroom belonging to the sex they were assigned at birth. The streamer did not want to film in a state where a discriminatory policy such as the 'bathroom law' existed and so filming was moved to South Carolina.
"When we wrote it, it was 100 percent Wilmington in our heads," co-creator Jonas Pate told the Wilmington Star-News. "We wanted to film it here. But Netflix made the right decision to insist on inclusivity and we completely agree with them."
Instead, the series was filmed in South Carolina's Charleston, with scenes involving water taking place on Mount Pleasant's Shem Creek. Meanwhile, other scenes were shot on Pitt Street, Hunting Island, the Hunting Island Lighthouse and Lowndes Grove.
The Wreck, which is the restaurant Kiara works at is, is actually a real place in Mount Pleasant, known as the Wreck of the Richard and Charlene.
Making South Carolina look like North Carolina proved to be a harder task than you would think, with Pate revealing that locations had to be chosen carefully.
"Charleston is beautiful, but it is a rapidly growing city, so we had to cherry pick pieces of it," he told Wilmington Star-News. "Take these narrow snapshots and piece them together to create this fictional world of ours."
Outer Banks is available to stream on Netflix. Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide.
