The location of Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and aired for three critically acclaimed seasons on HBO between 2014 and 2017. The series is set three years after the Departure – a Rapture-like event that saw 2% of the world’s population suddenly and inexplicably disappear – and follows how those left behind cope in its aftermath.
The Leftovers is notable for introducing a new location with each season. While season 1 was set in the fictional upstate New York town of Mapleton, the show’s second season switched gears by moving the action to another fictional locale – the small Texas town of Jarden, which miraculously didn’t lose a single citizen during the Departure. In the third and final season of The Leftovers, the first couple of episodes took place primarily in Jarden while the remaining six were set in the Australian state of Victoria.
Clearly, the setting of the show is important but where exactly was The Leftovers filmed? While there is indeed a hamlet called Mapleton in New York state, it was neither the setting nor a filming location for the first season of the show. Rather, several scenic towns in New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties stood in for the fictional Mapleton including Mount Vernon, Hastings-on-Hudson, Harrison, Nyack and Pearl River.
Production was based in Austin, Texas throughout the second season of The Leftovers with the nearby town of Lockhart acting as a stand-in for the fictional Jarden. Other locations in and around Austin also featured prominently during the second season. Scenes were filmed at Richard Moya Park and its historic - and supposedly haunted - Moore’s Crossing Bridge while other scenic spots like Pedernales Falls State Park and McKinney Falls State Park also appeared on the series.
When filming moved Down Under in season 3 the cast and crew of The Leftovers made their base in Melbourne, Australia. Several iconic Melbourne landmarks made an appearance including Federation Square, the State Library of Victoria and the graffiti-covered Hosier Lane while a flashback scene in the episode “Crazy Whitefella Thinking” saw Fitzroy Town Hall double as Mapleton. In the wider Victoria region scenes were also filmed at the former gold rush town of Clunes, the Mount Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Center and the You Yangs mountain range.