Only a couple of months after an episode of the Amazon Prime action-thriller series Reacher was filmed in downtown Millbrook, scenes for a new Netflix thriller series will also be shot there.
Exterior scenes for the eight-episode limited series Wayward (working title Tall Pines) will be filmed on King St. E. between Union and Tupper on Wednesday (July 10) from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
From queer Canadian standup comic, actor, and writer Mae Martin (Feel Good, Sap), the series is set in a seemingly bucolic American small town called Tall Pines, where a residential correctional school for troubled teens is located.
After 16-year-old pot heads Abby and Leila (Sydney Topliffe and Alyvia Alyn Lind) get sent to the school by their exasperated parents, the two Canadian teens soon discover the school and its headmistress Leanne (Toni Collette) are part of a sinister cult that threatens their friendship, sanity, and lives.
Meanwhile, Detective Alex Dempsey (Mae Martin) has moved to the town at the request of their wife Laura (Sarah Gadon), who grew up there and wants to return home to raise the couple’s soon-to-be-born child. When Dempsey, who has a troubled past of their own, discovers the truth about the town as well as their wife’s deeper connections to the evils the town protects, the detective must join forces with Abby and Leila to take down the cult from the inside.
Wayward also stars Brandon Jay McLaren in an undisclosed role and Patrick J. Adam, Patrick Gallagher, and Josh Close in recurring roles.
When announcing the Netflix production of Wayward in April last year, Martin said it “is a story I’ve been dying to tell for years, and I’m beyond excited for people to see what we have in store. It’s going to be an insane roller coaster and so different to anything I’ve done before.”
The series is shooting from July to October in Toronto and surrounding area.
During the Millbrook filming, there will be intermittent and full closures of King St. E, between Union and Tupper and Needlers Lane between King St. E. and Hay St., with traffic stoppage on King St. between Cavan St. and Gravel Rd. Pedestrians will not be affected by the closures.
The filming of Wayward and Reacher are only the latest examples of the picturesque town’s popularity as a location in the film and television industry.
Films shot in Millbrook include 2003’s The Music Man starring Matthew Broderick, David Cronenberg’s 2005 film A History of Violence, and 2009’s Let It Snow, among others. Scenes have also been shot in Millbrook for the Netflix series Jupiter’s Legacy (2020) and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2021), as well as for the Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries and Anne with an E.
Wayward is expected to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2025.
