During Episode 7 of "The Last of Us Podcast," an official companion podcast hosted by Troy Baker, Craig Mazin admitted that the Northland Village Mall in which they filmed "Left Behind," was a bit lackluster.
"We had this interesting challenge. I was in love with the mall from the DLC, and we needed it," Mazin said. "I wanted, as much as Neil [Druckmann] wanted, to see Ellie experiencing what we all took for granted for the first time and how magical it is. Well, we got kind of lucky to an extent. There is a mall in Calgary [Canada] that was scheduled for demolition ... it was great because they basically said 'You can do whatever you want. You can break up the floors. You can [mess] up the whole place with mud and vines and everything. You have the run of it for shooting as long as you want throughout the day.'"
Despite finding a place like this, there was one problem. It was a one-story mall. Mazin went on to share that the doomed mall technically featured an escalator, but it led to a partial second floor with a dismal view and only two or three stores.
It certainly didn't fit the bill required for what Mazin envisioned, nor for what Druckmann had created in the original DLC. Now, keen-eyed viewers will note that the mall in Episode 7 of "The Last of Us" was not one story tall.
