Ontario plays America: The filming locations behind Netflix's I Will Find You
I Will Find You
A father wrongly imprisoned for his son's murder. A prison break. A search that crosses cities, lakes and wilderness. Netflix's I Will Find You — based on Harlan Coben's bestselling novel and premiering June 18 — was filmed in Ontario, Canada, and New York City.
For the first time in Coben's long Netflix partnership, the series is set in the United States rather than the UK or Europe — a shift that demanded a different visual language entirely. The solution was Ontario, Canada, supplemented by a late August sprint through New York City.
The series opens behind walls, and those walls are real. Kingston Penitentiary served as the primary location for the prison sequences. The Pen, as it is known locally, operated from 1835 until 2013 and has since become one of Canada's most in-demand filming locations.
Kingston architecture reads easily as the American Northeast, which is precisely why the production based itself here alongside Toronto from April through August 2025. Toronto filled in for Boston's urban fabric. The University of Toronto Mississauga campus provided classrooms, hallways, libraries and outdoor spaces for multiple scenes — standing in for Quincy College, where Britt Lower's character Rachel lectures after leaving journalism.
Casa Loma — Toronto's Gothic Revival castle — served as a filming location, with its grand staircases and sprawling grounds used for scenes in the series. Edwards Gardens at 755 Lawrence Avenue East in North York was also used during production.
A significant portion of the show's American street life was filmed in Hamilton, Ontario. Production crews transformed residential streets near Delaware Avenue and Burris Street into Boston neighbourhoods, using American vehicles and local signage to complete the illusion. Hamilton has spent years quietly becoming one of North America's busiest stand-in cities.
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David's search doesn't stay in the city. As the net of the story spreads, so does the landscape. Muskoka — the lake district north of Toronto, known for forests, water and summer retreats — provides some of visually striking sequences. Algonquin Provincial Park adds genuine wilderness and the charming village of Millbrook provides smaller-scale quietness.
In late August 2025, production moved to New York City for scenes filmed in and around Washington Square Park, Central Park and Times Square. The three locations cover the full spectrum of Manhattan's visual identity: the collegiate calm of Greenwich Village, the green expanse of Central Park, the sensory overload of Times Square. Each appears briefly but decisively, anchoring the series in a recognisable America that four months in Ontario had been carefully approximating.
SOURCE
Wikipedia / Primetimer / TV Guide UK / Hollywood North Buzz / Tonboriday
CREDITS
© Netflix, Final Twist Productions, Story Math
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