MCU: Location Scout – Afterlife

Afterlife! This is a beautiful location that I thought was a studio set for a while, but the more I looked at the footage on the show, I realized that the detail was too intricate for a TV show to recreate, and thereby must be a location that has been enhanced.

The asian-influenced style, from the Japanese gates to Chinese architecture really threw me for a loop. Plus, it appeared to be a garden! Googling the phrase “chinese garden los angeles” did not do much to help, and kept trying to take me back to the Japanese garden at The Huntington Library, which I knew this was not part of.

It wasn’t until I got a copy of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season Two Declassified book by Troy Benjamin that it all began to unravel. This book series doesn’t always say where a location is, sometimes they give you clues. Since this is a private residence, they were very careful to only refer to it as an “estate in Malibu.” Well, that was good enough for me!

I started using Google Maps to look for this place in Malibu. Unfortunately Malibu is pretty big! So I went back to Google “Chinese garden estate malibu” and one of the results led me to Tony Duquette, who was an artist and designer for films and stage. He created a number of offbeat homes in the Southern California area, including his ranch in the Malibu Hills, Sortilegium. Just looking at the images from this place, I knew it had to be the same location.

With that in mind, and some careful online searches, I discovered what I believe to be the entrance to this ranch. This particular location was very fun to research as one discovery led to the next, plus I found out some really cool SoCal History that, as a native of the Southland, I was unaware of.

Please remember that this is a Private Residence, and you should always be respectful of the owners of the Property.