Where Was Netflix’s ‘Untamed’ Filmed? All About the Real Locations

Eric Bana has no interest in returning to a studio set after filming Untamed. 

The Netflix limited series — which premiered on July 17 and stars Sam Neill, Rosemarie DeWitt, Wilson Bethel and Lily Santiago — follows Kyle Turner (Bana), an agent with the Investigative Services Branch of the National Park Service. In the midst of grieving the death of his young son, Turner is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a woman who fell from El Capitan, an iconic 3,000-foot granite cliff in Yosemite National Park. But during the process, Bana uncovers a connection to two other cases — which hits close to home.

When Bana received the script in 2019, he immediately connected with his character over their “shared love for the outdoors” and how it “affects our psyche and our well-being, our sense of self, our emotional journey in life,” he told the Los Angeles Times in July 2025.

In fact, Bana was so inspired by the setting that he had no interest in returning to a typical set afterwards.

“Going to work in a studio after doing something like this — the thought of it is just debilitating creatively,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “There’s something about a camera coming out of a box when the sun rises and going back when the sun goes down. There’s an energy, there’s a cadence to that.”

So where was Netflix’s Untamed filmed? Here’s everything to know about the limited series’ filming locations.

Was Untamed filmed at Yosemite?

Though Untamed is set against the backdrop of Yosemite National Park, the Netflix survival drama wasn’t actually filmed there, according to the Los Angeles Times. But co-showrunner Mark L. Smith (American Primeval) told Netflix’s Tudum in July 2025 that the rugged beauty and lurking dangers of the real-life site helped shape the tone of the six-episode miniseries.

“Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery, but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that,” Smith said. “I love stripping all the cheats away, stripping all the more modern tools that people can use. It really gets down to the character and what they can find within themselves.”

Where was Untamed filmed? 

While Untamed is set in California, production took place much farther north — in the wilderness of British Columbia, per the Los Angeles Times. Co-showrunner Elle Smith credited Bana’s passion for the outdoors with helping the cast and crew push through the challenging shoot. 

“This was a tough landscape that we were shooting in,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “I think it really helps in terms of tone setting if your movie star is willing to get out on the rock and do the climb. It really helps the crew also feel like they’re able to do the climb.”

However, not everyone was as comfortable as Bana. In July 2025, Santiago — who plays National Park Service rookie Naya Vasquez — told Geek Girl Authority that she related to her character’s inexperience in the wild.

“She’s from LA, and I, as Lily, come from New York, and so the character and I were both getting used to the wilderness at the same time,” the La Brea star said. “It was really convenient because I actually didn’t have to do much preparation for any of the outdoor adventuring we do.” 

Santiago added that she loved the idea of nature acting as another character in the show. “People keep asking, ‘Who’s Untamed?” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Nature is untamed. That’s what the title is about.’ ”

What has Eric Bana said about filming Untamed?

Even before Untamed began filming, Bana had a clear vision for his character — and it included a horse. 

While scripts were still being written, the Dirty John star requested that his survivalist protagonist rely on horseback as his main form of travel. He ended up bonding with the animal during production, telling the Los Angeles Times he “desperately wanted to smuggle him on the plane and take him home.”

Bana also hoped for a different kind of wilderness encounter: a bear. 

“We had a bear guy on set who was responsible for our and the bears’ safety,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We had very strict rules around food and all that sort of stuff. I was desperate, desperate to have an encounter with a bear of the positive kind, and I never saw one.”

Elle confirmed that almost everyone else got to see one, joking that Bana “had really bad bear luck.”