The Rust Planet, as we’d also like to call it, is pretty eery and literally other worldly. However, it does give Netflix’s Lost in Space the vibe it deserves especially in a couple of episodes for the series’ second season. With no livelihood, vegetation and water, it set up Lost in Space perfectly. There was only one location for location manager, Mike Johansen, and it was the Alberta Badlands because of all the things that made it NOT earth. According to Johansen, him and a team of producers spent a couple of days just figuring it out while driving around.
Clearly, Johansen was in awe of the place:
“It was a beautiful summer and we visited the sites with the producers and studio head and supervising director and all the decision-makers from Vancouver.”
“We took quite an extensive road trip all around and it was a blazing hot, beautiful, dry summer. Everything was a little greener than they wanted. But we were going off local knowledge and our own that, typically, later in the summer all the green stuff is burned off and dried up and turned a lot more brown as we get into fall.”
Season 2 was shot during September and every one knows what happens during September: some pretty ass-kicking rain. “After Day 1 it started raining and didn’t stop, really,” Johansen said with a smile.
“It was literally pouring — it was snowing in some scenes — and they made it look so dry and desolate. It looks great.”
“I even personally apologized to the producer after the shoot, saying ‘I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you guys.’ He said ‘No, no, we’re happy. This is going to work out good.’ ”
That’s hard-earned dedication right there. If you haven’t watched Lost in Space yet, then here’s a little preview!