Where Was ’Outer Bank’s Netflix Filmed? Set Locations & Details

Netflix’s teen drama Outer Banks is an ocean lover’s paradise. So where was Netflix’s Outer Banks filmed? Surprise, surprise, the 10-episode series didn’t actually film in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but somewhere close by.

For those who don’t know, Outer Banks, which premiered on Netflix on April 15, centers on a teenage boy named John Booker Routeledge (John B., for short) and his friends called the Pogues. The show follows John B. and the Pogues as they investigate the disappearance of his father, who went missing at sea in the Outer Banks of North Carolina a year before the events of the series. We won’t spoil the rest of the show for you, but Outer Banks is full of mystery, drama and steamy teen romance. (A trifecta!)

Where Is Outer Banks Set?

Though it didn’t film there, Outer Banks is set in the Outer Banks of the United States, a 200-mile-long strip of barrier islands and splits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia. The area, which has become a popular tourist destination for its open beachfront, covers most of the North Carolina coastline that separates the Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean.

Where Was Outer Banks Filmed?

The big question: Where was Outer Banks filmed if it wasn’t in the OBX? Well, the series actually shot in the palmetto-packed area of Charleston, South Carolina, so it wasn’t even filmed in the same state. As noted by OBX Today, the filming location has led to some criticism from Outer Banks locals who don’t think the series is authentic to the area.

Why Couldn’t the Show Film in the Outer Banks?

There’s a reason that it wasn’t filmed in the real OBX though. While co-creator Jons Pate has said that he wanted to film the series in North Carolina, the Wilmington Star News reported that Netflix chose not to film in Wilmington, a city near the real Outer Banks, because of North Carolina’s 2016 anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2 legislation, known as “the bathroom law,” that states that transgender folks must use restrooms that match their assigned sex at birth. Though the show didn’t film in Wilmington, Pate told the Wilmington Star News that the series was still able to hire dozens of crew members who traveled to Charleston to help with the production.

When we wrote [Outer Banks], it was 100 percent Wilmington in our heads. We wanted to film it here. But Netflix made the right decision to insist on inclusivity and we completely agree with them,” he said.

Image: Netflix.

How Accurate Is Outer Banks?

In an interview with Esquire, Brent Nultemeir, a well-known surfer from the OBX, explained that the show wasn’t geographically accurate for many scenes. Specifically, he pointed to a scene where the Pogues take a ferry for Chapel Hill, which is land-locked in real life. “They showcase some kind of a lighthouse that was not even from our area at all,” he said. “Some of the homes and some of the vegetation is wrong, too. Further south there’s a lot more palm trees. We don’t have that many palm trees here on the Outer Banks. Some of it looked similar, but when you live here, in the very first episode you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not here.’”

That said, Pate told The Wrap that the show is actually a combination of both Carolinas’ coasts, so the intention may not have been to be geographically accurate. “The world of Outer Banks is an amalgam of both Carolina coasts,” he said. “It’s a fantasy geography based on a myriad of experiences all based on the Carolina coast. I just want to make it clear we’re making no attempt at geographical reality.”

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