© Netflix // Photo Kirsty Griffin
September // 2026
California's Salinas Valley was filmed in New Zealand: The locations of East of Eden
Filming for East of Eden began in New Zealand in mid-October 2024, with principal photography wrapping by March 2025. The story is set in the Salinas Valley of California – the fertile agricultural corridor between Monterey and San José that John Steinbeck immortalised in his 1952 novel. New Zealand served as its stand-in, with the country's historic towns, dry countryside and rugged rural landscapes recreating early 20th-century California.