The Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced us to some pretty iconic fictional locations. Now, thanks to The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, we have been introduced to Madripoor. According to the show, Madripoor is a fictional nation in South East Asia known for harboring villains of all manner.
The nation is filled with lawless characters because it is largely ungoverned and does not allow criminal extradition within its orders. Madripoor is divided between Hightown, one of the wealthiest places on earth, and Lowtown, where the gang needs to maintain its cover to stay alive.
This piece will look at Madripoor’s film location and a bit of the nation’s history.
Madripoor is a fictional city so its iconic skyline was crafted via CGI
Unfortunately, that epic Madripoor skyline doesn’t exist in real life. Madripoor, which is depicted as a sprawling waterside metropolis, has plenty of skyscrapers mildly resembling real-life cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai.
It makes sense that the creators didn’t use a real-life city to portray Madripoor. They stayed true to the island’s fictional nature by using CGI to create the city’s skyline.
The futuristic Madripoor bridge, however, is real. The filming location of the Bridge is Troja Bridge in Prague. Most of the show was shot in the Czech Republic. The skyline above the bridge is the product of CGI.
Another real-life location is the graffiti-laden tunnel with intimidating bikers that the gang drives through. The filming location for the tunnel is the Krog Street Tunnel in Atlanta. Madripoor’s Lowtown scenes were shot in Griffin, Georgia. Per Atlanta Magazine, the production team filmed the scenes in January 2020.
Unfortunately, the production team built special sets for the Lowtown scenes. Therefore, you can’t travel down to Georgia for a drink at The Brass Monkey Tavern or The Princess Bar. Director Kari Skogland talked to Marvel about the inspiration behind Lowtown:
“It was more like a street bar. So you really felt the sense of this place emerging out of the bricks of the place that we start at, which is the bridge. We drew a bunch of different realities and locations and put them all into its own box.”
In the series, we don’t see much of Madripoor’s HighTown except for Sharon’s hideout. The art gallery’s location is still a mystery, but the interiors of Sharon’s hideout were filmed at Wimbish House in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wolverine of the X-Men was one of the first superheroes to travel to Madripoor in the 40s
Madripoor was first mentioned in New Mutants #32 in October 1985. Wolverine was among the first superheroes to set foot on the lawless island. Madripoor is run by rotating criminal gangs and terror organizations. Its historical ties to piracy make it a hub for black market activity.
The nation was once ruled by Madame Hydra before Iron Man and Wolverine drove Hydra out and installed Tyger Tiger as ruler. Madripoor descended into lawlessness after Tiger was overthrown. Wolverine returned to the nation years later to team up with Captain America and Black Widow against ninjas of the Hand and Baron Strucker.
Wolverine has a strong connection to Madripoor and his son, Daken, was once in charge of the island. In the comics, Tiger Tyger is back in power.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Madripoor is run by the Power Broker, a greedy scientist obsessed with developing superpowers and selling them to the highest bidder. Co-executive producer Zole Nagelhout talked to Marvel about the joy of adding Madripoor to the MCU:
“It’s incredible we got to be the ones to introduce Madripoor. Part of the goal of every project is how we are expanding this corner of the MCU, how are we making the sandbox of the Marvel Universe feel bigger. Ideally, there are many more untold stories to be had.”
Could one of those untold stories be the introduction of Madripoor-tied Wolverine? We can’t wait to find out.