Where Was Hulu's Political Thriller Series 'Paradise' Starring Sterling K. Brown Filmed?
Although we know where 'Paradise' was filmed, there's a lot we don't know about the movie's backdrop which is more important than you'd imagine.
Published Feb. 3 2025, 4:10 p.m. ET
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 1 of Paradise.
When Hulu aired trailers for its political thriller series Paradise, fans didn't really know what they were in for. At least, not fully. The eight-episode series, which stars Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson, and James Marsden, is full of many twists, turns, and time-skipping.
Yet throughout the episodes, one theme remains static: the beautiful backdrop of the series. So where was Paradise filmed? Here's what we know about the filming location as well as the big early plot twists that you need to know about to get ready for your binge-through of the episodes.
Where was 'Paradise' filmed?
If you recognize Sterling from the hit series This Is Us, you're not alone. As one of the stand-out performers from the series, Sterling's rise to stardom has been assured and reiterated as Hulu brought him back for another starring role, this time in Paradise. And the series has another connection to This Is Us: The creator of both series is Dan Fogelman.
Sterling plays Special Agent Xavier Collins, who was hired to lead the protection detail for former President Cal Bradford, played by James Marsden. We'll get to Cal's fate in a moment because it relates heavily to what Xavier experiences throughout the series.
But while the series appears to have a generic, Washington D.C.-like backdrop which could be any of a number of important political locations in the United States, according to TheDirect it was filmed in and around Los Angeles. The Southern California landscape offers outdoor backdrops, and Hollywood's set magic brings the series' interior shots together.
'Paradise' embraces the intrigue of a world hidden by political games and public prudency.
Now, back to Cal's fate. In the series, fans are taken forward and backward in time to try to paint a picture of how Cal was killed. We learn fairly quickly that the former president has been killed, and it comes to light that he and Xavier fought hours before his death.
Yet we also learn that humanity is facing an extinction-level event, and only the most elite and important people are in the know about the catastrophic event. Xavier learns that an underground city has been built to house humanity's most promising, and the intimation is that Xavier is given this information as part of his role in protecting Cal.
We are sold the concept that it's prudent to keep the information hidden from the public to prevent panic but also to preserve humanity's most vital.
Throughout the early episodes, we quickly began to piece together the fact that Xavier is already living in a fake city. Ostensibly, that underground city they built to protect the important people. It is, you guessed it, called "Paradise."
Throughout Paradise, there's a desperate, urgent, and almost creepy vibe that ties the mystery of the former president's murder together with the mystery of what humanity has faced. Xavier's journey to uncover the truth intermingles with the apparent revelation that he is already living in the underground city and humanity's fate is uncertain.
Paradise is an eight-episode series airing every Tuesday on Hulu.