Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth season of Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ focuses on the search for the Blue Crown. The hunt begins with the amulet belonging to the infamous pirate Blackbeard’s wife, Elizabeth Teach. But the inscription on it points to Blackbeard’s long-lost treasure, which eventually turns everyone’s attention toward the Blue Crown. By the time the Pogues find out about the Crown, there are already a lot of elements at play. To begin with, there is a group of mercenaries called the Lupine Corsair who have been looking for the crown for quite some time. Then, there is the treacherous Chandler Groff, who is also revealed to be JJ’s biological father. He has his own devious plan in motion. The search leads all parties to Morocco, where, through the cryptic map retrieved from the catacombs in Charleston, they discover that the crown is somewhere in a city called Agapenta. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Fictional Agapenta is Brought to Life by a Real Moroccan City
As rich as Agapenta’s background might seem in relation to the Blue Crown, it remains a completely fictional city concocted by the writers of ‘Outer Banks’ to mark the end of the Pogues’ journey in the fourth season. The city presents a labyrinthine structure, leading the mercs and the Pogues to fight for their lives while they try to figure out the exact location of the crown. In real life, the scenes set in Agapenta were filmed in the city of Ouarzazate in Morocco. Known as “the door of the desert” (in reference to the Sahara Desert), the city has served as a filming location for some major productions like ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Gladiator,’ ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ ‘The Mummy,’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ to name a few.
The creators of the Netflix series revealed that they chose Morocco for Season 4 because they were looking for a place that could be cinematic while also serving the purpose of the story. They even built the story of the treasure around Morocco to make it seem more authentic. Apart from Ouarzazate, Essaouira emerges as another major location in the show. The city’s former name, Mogador, was used to name the fictional Mogador Scroll, which has the encrypted map that leads the way to the Blue Crown.
Filming in Morocco brought an exciting turn of events for the show and its cast and crew, who majorly filmed in North Carolina and South Carolina and had turned towards the Bahamas and Barbados for Season 2 and Season 3. Reportedly, the filming schedule in Morocco was supposed to be for two weeks, but it ended up stretching to six. Talking about their experience of filming the grand old cities of Morocco, the actors revealed that they felt like they were a part of an action-adventure movie like ‘The Mummy’ or ‘Indiana Jones.’ Being on location certainly helped them get into the mindset of their characters, feeling the danger and the urgency of the situation, and eventually, making peace with the heart-breaking tragedy that changes everything.
Read More: Outer Banks: Why Did Groff Give Away JJ to Luke? Did Groff Kill Larissa and Wes Genrette?
