Where Was Westworld Filmed? Every Season, From Utah to Spain

Where was Westworld filmed? For its first two seasons, mostly on two old Western movie ranches outside Los Angeles, with the big canyon views shot in Utah around Moab. Then the show left the park. Season 3 turned Singapore and Valencia, Spain, into a future Los Angeles, and season 4 added New York.

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s HBO series ran for four seasons, from 2016 to 2022, and shot on 35mm film the whole way. Here is where each season was made, seven real places you can see for yourself, and where the 1973 original was shot.

Westworld Filming Locations by Season

Season	Main Locations	What They Played
Season 1 (2016)	Paramount Ranch, Melody Ranch, Castle Valley and Dead Horse Point in Utah	Sweetwater and the park’s frontier
Season 2 (2018)	Melody Ranch, Lake Powell, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, the Millard House in Pasadena	Shogun World, Ghost Nation country, Arnold’s house
Season 3 (2020)	Singapore, Valencia and Barcelona in Spain, Downtown Los Angeles	Future Los Angeles, Delos headquarters, Serac’s compound
Season 4 (2022)	Melody Ranch, the Warner Bros. backlot, Manhattan’s High Line and Hudson Yards	Temperance and Christina’s New York

7 Westworld Filming Locations You Can See for Yourself

The list counts down to the Western town most fans think of as Sweetwater, and it has news.

7) City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia: Delos Headquarters

The white, bone-like buildings of Delos headquarters in season 3 are Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain.

Season 3 needed a future that looked built, not drawn, and Calatrava’s complex already looked like it came from 2050. The eye-shaped Hemisfèric and the long white ribs of the science museum did most of the work with very little help.

It’s the easiest Westworld location in the world to visit. You can walk the pools and bridges for free, and the complex sits at the end of a long park in a riverbed that runs through the city.

6) Singapore: Los Angeles, About 40 Years From Now

For season 3, Singapore stood in for a Los Angeles about 40 years in the future.

The crew mixed Singapore’s real towers with Downtown Los Angeles and computer effects to build one city. Marina One’s towers became the outside of Incite, the company at the center of the season.

The quieter shots came from Pulau Ubin, a small island off Singapore’s coast with old wooden jetties. Bernard’s departure scene was filmed there, and it feels a world away from the glass towers, though it’s only a short boat ride from the mainland.

5) The Millard House, Pasadena: Arnold’s House

Arnold Weber’s home in season 2 is La Miniatura, the Millard House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1924.

Wright built the house for a rare-book dealer, Alice Millard, out of patterned concrete blocks. That handmade, ancient look suited Arnold, the co-founder whose memory haunts the park.

When the show wanted to come back for season 3, the new owners would not allow filming inside. So the production rebuilt the house on a set. Next time you watch, see if you can tell the difference.

4) Dead Horse Point, Utah: The Canyon Overlook

The jaw-dropping views down to the Colorado River in season 1 came from Dead Horse Point, a state park near Moab, Utah.

Westworld sells the size of the park with a handful of wide shots, and this is one of the best. The overlook sits at the end of a narrow mesa, with the river bending far below.

The park is about 32 miles from Moab: 9 miles north on US 191, then 23 miles on Utah 313. Go at sunrise or sunset, when the canyon walls turn the color they are on screen.

3) Castle Valley and Fisher Towers, Utah: The Frontier

The red-rock valleys and towers behind Westworld’s riders and trains are Castle Valley and Fisher Valley, off Utah Route 128 near Moab.

Route 128 runs along the Colorado River through red canyon walls, and the crew used it for the shots seen through the windows of the moving train. Castle Valley and the Fisher Towers supplied the long riding shots that make the park feel endless.

Visit Utah calls the area “quintessential western America,” and “otherworldly, almost impossible.” Season 2 went further, to Lake Powell and to Coral Pink Sand Dunes for the Ghost Nation episode “Kiksuya.”

2) Melody Ranch, Santa Clarita: Sweetwater, Shogun World and Temperance

Melody Ranch, a working Western movie studio in Santa Clarita, is the one location Westworld used in every era: Sweetwater in season 1, Shogun World in season 2 and the 1920s town of Temperance in season 4.

Melody Ranch has been a Western set since 1915. Cowboy star Gene Autry bought it in 1953 and named it after his film. A fire destroyed its main street in 1962, and the Veluzat family rebuilt it after buying the ranch in 1990.

That history is why it can play almost anything. Deadwood, Django Unchained and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood all shot there. Westworld simply kept redressing the same streets, from Japan to Prohibition-era Chicago.

1) Paramount Ranch, Agoura Hills: Sweetwater’s Main Street

Paramount Ranch’s Western Town in the Santa Monica Mountains played Sweetwater’s main street, and after a wildfire destroyed it in 2018, it is about to reopen.

Paramount Pictures owned the ranch from the 1920s, and the National Park Service bought part of it in 1980. Its Western Town “served as the set for HBO’s Westworld series for the Main Street scenes,” Fox 10 reported, before the Woolsey Fire burned it in November 2018.

Four new buildings now stand on the old footprints, with metal roofs and sprinklers built to survive the next fire. The rebuild cost about $25 million, and the park stayed open through the work. If the timing holds, Sweetwater’s main street will reopen for the ranch’s centennial in 2027.

Where Was the Original Westworld (1973) Filmed?

Michael Crichton’s 1973 film, with Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger, was shot in the Mojave Desert, in the gardens of the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills, and on MGM’s soundstages and backlot.

It took 30 days and cost $1.2 million. It was also one of the first feature films to use digital image processing, for the pixelated shots seen through the Gunslinger’s eyes. Crichton went on to write Jurassic Park, and our guide to where Jurassic Park was filmed picks up that thread.

How to Visit Westworld Country

You can split Westworld into two trips.

• The ranch day, Los Angeles. Start at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, which is free and has trails. Then drive about an hour to Santa Clarita for Melody Ranch, which you can only see on an organized tour.
• The Moab loop, Utah. Drive Route 128 along the Colorado River past Castle Valley and the Fisher Towers, then head to Dead Horse Point for sunset.

If you’re coming from the Alabama Hills, the backdrop of where Tremors was filmed, you can make it a full Western road trip.

Behind the Scenes of Westworld

• It was shot on film. All four seasons were shot on 35mm.
• It got bigger every year. Budgets ran from more than $88 million for season 1 to more than $160 million for season 4.
• It won big. The show earned nine Primetime Emmys from 54 nominations.
• The creators kept building worlds. Nolan and Joy went on to executive produce Fallout, another show built around a sealed-off world. See our Fallout fun facts.

FAQs About the Westworld Filming Locations

The Final Cut: Where Westworld Was Filmed

So, where was Westworld filmed? On two Western movie ranches near Los Angeles, in the canyons around Moab, Utah, and later in Singapore, Spain and New York.

The best stop is the one coming back to life. When Paramount Ranch reopens in 2027, you’ll be able to walk the street where Sweetwater began.

For more real-world sets, see where Knives Out was filmed, or browse all our film locations.