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In the first season, Jeremy Renner’s character, Mike McLusky, becomes the new Mayor of Kingstown, but where was the Paramount+ crime drama filmed? Kingstown is a real town; however, it is not in Michigan. Yellowstone’s co-creator, Taylor Sheridan, produced the crime series with Hugh Dillon, who grew up in a town full of penitentiaries. Take a look at all of the Mayor of Kingstown filming locations.

'Mayor of Kingstown' filmed in Kingston Prison in Kingston, Ontario
‘Mayor of Kingstown’ prison yard | Marni Grossman/ViacomCBS ©2021 Paramount+, Inc.

Where does ‘The Mayor of Kingstown’ take place?

The Mayor of Kingstown episodes takes place in the fictional town of Kingstown, Michigan, so evidently it wasn’t filmed there. The story follows the McLusky family, including Mike and his brothers, Mitch (Kyle Chandler) and Kyle (Taylor Handley). The youngest brother, Kyle, works for the Kingstown Police Department and attempts to stay out of his brothers’ business dealings. Throughout Mayor of Kingstown Season 1, viewers see Kingstown Prison, the police department, and various other locations around the town.  

‘Mayor of Kingstown’ filming locations

Although Kingstown, Michigan, is not a real place, Kingston, Ontario, is a thriving city with nine penitentiaries. Co-creator Dillon took the inspiration for the crime drama from his hometown of Kingston. The Mayor of Kingstown production team filmed from May to October 2021. Filming locations included Hamilton, Burlington, and Kingston, Ontario. A central filming location included the now-closed Kingston Penitentiary and the downtown of Kingston. 

Kingston, Ontario, has nine prisons in the area, so it was the perfect backdrop for a drama series about the business of incarceration.  

According to CTV News, Delta Kingston Waterfront Hotels General Manager Stephanie Quick said the influx of the cast and crew of the Mayor of Kingston brought an economic boost to the city at a time when they truly needed it. They hope that viewers see the historical sites of Kingston and opt to travel there in the future.

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Hugh Dillon’s hometown inspiration for ‘Mayor of Kingstown’

In an interview with Newsweek, co-creator Dillon described growing up in Kingston, with so many penitentiaries surrounding the area.

“I can tell you this, I grew up in a town with nine penitentiaries, a maximum, a medium and a women’s [penitentiary], minimum security,” Dillon explained to the outlet. “You know, as a kid, my mom was a teacher, my friend’s parents were prison guards, one was a warden, other friends were convicts, and it was, you know, in this perfectly cultivated civilized world there’s this brutality and these institutions.”

Dillon described seeing the guard towers as a kid, thinking they looked like Disneyland; however, it was very different. It also was the perfect place for Dillon and Sheridan’s production team to film Mayor of Kingstown. 

“And as I got older, you see these things that happen in our society, child killers to serial killers to murderers to whatever horrific thing we’re seeing in the news, and they’re coming to your town,” he continued. “Wherever in the country, they’ve been captured, they’re coming to your town. So, I don’t know how that bleeds into my psychology or how that works, but that’s what I brought.”

Although Dillon and Sheridan’s stories for Mayor of Kingstown are fictional, there are roots of the truth sprinkled throughout it.

Sorry Netflix and Hulu subscribers, Mayor of Kingstown is only available for streaming on Paramount+. 

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