San Diego provided the American military and naval sequences – the US Navy pilot world that establishes who Troy Kelly is before the mission goes wrong. San Diego is the single most concentrated piece of American naval infrastructure outside Washington DC and so a logical filming location.
Budapest was the final stage of filming, running through May and June 2024, with Reynolds and Blake Lively – and their four children – settling into the presidential suite of a central hotel for approximately a month. Reynolds, characteristically, had opinions about the city. "Loved every second working in Budapest," he said. "Many call it the 'Hawaii of Central Europe' and even though nobody calls it that, it's warm, and beautiful and endlessly fascinating."
The studio base was Korda Studios in Etyek, about 30 kilometres southwest of the city – the large-scale facility that has hosted Blade Runner 2049, The Martian and Red Sparrow, among dozens of other major productions. But a portion of the Budapest work moved into the city itself.
Production took over several central streets and areas around the Hungarian State Opera – one of Budapest's grandest Neo-Renaissance landmarks – to some scenes.
The crew also closed the area around Heroes' Square – Budapest's most monumental public space, flanked by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hall of Art – and filmed scenes on Dózsa György út, the broad avenue running directly alongside the square. Heroes' Square, with its millennium monument and colonnade of Hungarian kings, photographs as pure Eastern European grandeur.
Mayday premieres on Apple TV+ on September 4, 2026.
