Where Is Magnum P.I. Actually Filmed? - Looper (2024)

Television

Zack Dougan/CBS

Fans ofEric Guggenheimand Peter M. Lenkov's "Magnum P.I." — a comma-free reboot of Donald P. Bellisario's "Magnum, P.I." — received some exciting news this past June when, just weeks after CBS announced the series' cancellation, it was picked up "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" savior, NBC (via Deadline). The network, IndieWire reports, will produce 20 more episodes of the series, potentially premiering in 2023.

In addition to the reboot's charismatic new Magnum, Jay Hernandez ("Nashville," "Scandal"), the series offers viewers the same bright, "island fantasy" twist on the gritty primetime procedural that its predecessor did, and the setting is undoubtedly a major part of its ongoing appeal. But although the new version boasts a similarly tropical aesthetic, in terms of filming locations, it has — by necessity — done a few things differently.

In the spring of 2018, roughly five months before"Magnum P.I."debuted, an iconic filming location from the original series was demolished. The Robin's Nest — a sprawling estate owned by the unseen novelist Robin Masters (voiced by Orson Welles and finally portrayed by Red Crandell) — was torn down just three years after selling for nearly $9 million (via Honolulu Magazine). In the hit 1980s series, Tom Selleck's Magnum lived in the estate's guest house. In the reboot, Hernandez' Magnum also crashes in the mysterious author's guest pad, alongside the estate's curator, Kumu (Amy Hill), and his eventual investigative partner, the fan-dividing Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks). So where is the new Robin's Nest, and how does the recently rescued series make use of its island setting?

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Unlike its inspiration, the new Robin's Nest received a little help from CGI and the magic of the television studio — in this case, as Reel News Hawaii reports,Kalaeloa Studio inKapolei, located in Oahu, Hawaii. While much of the interior of Magnum's HQ is created using a combination ofKalaeloa Studio sets and actual parts of an estate and working resort calledBanyan House, located in Honolulu, the exterior is a different story, as Atlas of Wonders reveals.

The all-important, "meanwhile, back at the ranch" establishing shots of the Robin's Nest, the outlet explains, are actually a tech-assisted collage of the sprawling mountains and coastline ofKualoa Regional Park, and a digitally created home based on a residence that sits a little over two miles away fromKualoa Ranch, at49-3 Kamehameha Hwy (via Google Maps).Oahu, of course, is more than just Honolulu andKualoa Regional Park, and the series takes full advantage of a number of the island's most awe-inspiring settings.

According to Homey Hawaii, the majestic, winding highway upon which Magnum tools around in his Ferraris is none other than Interstate H-3, or, the John A. Burns Freeway. A portion of the highway sits on a towering viaduct that passes over the Halawa Valley and into the Koolau Range's Tetsuo Harano Tunnels, and at a reported building cost of $80 million per mile, it is amongst the costliest interstates ever constructed (via Amusing Planet).

CBS/ Amazon Prime

Despite the numerous shots of wild mountain or jungle scenery, vast bays, and simultaneously ominous and awesome seaside cliffs — many of which are taken from the aforementioned park,Maili Point,theHeeia Kea Jungle of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" fame, and Kaneohe Bay — much of the actual action and interaction in the series takes place in Honolulu. According to Atlas of Wonders, this includes scenes shot near, in, and around the First Hawaiian Bank's main downtown branch, the Bishop Museum of Honolulu,Waikiki Beach, and the hip neighborhood ofKakaako (among, of course, many others).The exterior of the series' police station is actually the Oahu Veterans Center, located on Kukila St in Honolulu.

Finally, though the series is very much set in Hawaii (and shares a universe with its sister reboot, "Hawaii Five-0") it nonetheless takes viewers to various parts of the globe in its quest to depict Magnum's past experiences. It does this, however, without ever leavingOahu.The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office depicted in Season 1's "Day of the Viper" is actually the Italian villa-inspired La PietraHawai'i School for Girls, and while this probably goes without saying, Season 2's depiction of the Great Wall of China is, of course, a creation of CGI. The entirety of the season premiere was filmed, like every other episode of "Magnum P.I.," on the versatile island of Oahu (per IMDb).