Inside the Manitoba Prairie Standing in for Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Reboot
Netflix’s new adaptation of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ has arrived, and much of the conversation around it has focused on where the show was actually made rather than just what happens on screen. Filming began on the series in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in July 2025 and wrapped by October 2025, a far cry from the sun-baked California hills that once stood in for the fictional Midwest.
The choice of setting turns out to carry real weight for how the series looks and feels. The location decision marks a significant departure from every previous adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved books, and the decision was as much about weather and authenticity as it was about aesthetics. For a story rooted in the American frontier, filming an ocean and a border away from that setting is a notable creative swing.
Why Manitoba Filming Locations Replaced the Kansas Prairie
The production’s geography is one of the more surprising details for longtime fans to absorb. While the story takes place in southeastern Kansas, the reboot was filmed entirely in Manitoba, giving the show a starkly different visual identity from the version many grew up watching. That gap between the fictional setting and the actual shooting location is larger than in most period productions.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine has spoken about the reasoning behind the move. Sonnenshine credits the province’s sweeping landscapes and tallgrass scenery for delivering the wide open, untouched prairie look the production was after. That untouched quality was apparently difficult to find in more developed parts of the American Midwest, which pushed the search northward.
Weather played an unexpectedly large role in the decision as well. Because cold, snowy and wet winter weather persists into spring in the province, shooting could not begin until June. Even with that later start, the cast and crew still had to grapple with major floods, tornadoes, lightning and extreme winds, along with ticks and bugs.
Sonnenshine has drawn a direct line between those conditions and the story itself. Speaking to CBC News, she said the cast and crew were going through it just like the Ingalls, getting a small taste of what pioneer life may have felt like, though obviously with modern conveniences close at hand. It is a rare instance where a production’s off screen struggles genuinely echo its on screen subject matter.
Winnipeg Production Details Behind the Scenes
Winnipeg itself became the operational hub for the entire shoot, not just a backdrop. Filming locations for the series are listed as Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with production handled by AC Studios, Anonymous Content and CBS Studios. That kind of infrastructure suggests the city offered more than just scenery.
Cast members have described the atmosphere on set as unusually close knit. Actress Rebecca Amzallag, who plays Lacey in the series, remembered the shoot as an extremely welcoming set where the cast would play games with the kids, with a real camaraderie reminiscent of the community depicted in the story while filming in rural Manitoba. She also noted the isolation of the location itself contributed to that closeness, since the crew was essentially in the middle of the country on a custom built set for the duration of filming.
That sense of momentum has already carried into a second season. The series was renewed for a second season in March 2026, ahead of its premiere, meaning executives greenlit more prairie adventures before a single episode had aired for the public. Filming on season two is set to get underway in Winnipeg starting June 12th and running through October 30th, ahead of a planned 2027 return.
Independence Kansas Setting Versus the Original Walnut Grove
Even though the cameras were rolling in Canada, the story itself is anchored somewhere very specific. The Netflix reboot of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ sets the Ingalls family’s story in Independence, Kansas, rather than the familiar Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Season one follows the Ingalls family, Charles, Caroline, Mary and Laura, as they build their little house on the Kansas prairie near the town of Independence.
Do you think the Manitoba location resembles Kansas?
That is a meaningful shift from what many viewers remember. The original ‘Little House on the Prairie’ TV show, which ran from 1974 to 1983, was a major hit with an enduring legacy, and although it was set in Minnesota, like the new reboot, it was filmed elsewhere, with Simi Valley, California, standing in for Walnut Grove. The new production essentially reverses that formula, choosing a setting closer to the books rather than the earlier series.
Sonnenshine has been explicit about wanting the reboot to track the source material more closely. She said the series aims to align more closely with Laura Ingalls Wilder’s semi-autobiographical novels, which follow the Ingalls family’s early years on the Osage Nation Reservation from 1869 to 1871. She also said Wilder’s writing had been part of her life for years, having read the novels many times as a child.
Osage Nation Consultation Shapes the Series
One of the more substantial changes from the earlier series involves how the show approaches the people who already lived on that land. Osage cultural consultant Julie O’Keefe, who also served as a consultant on the film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, was on set and guided production design and work on costumes, hair, makeup and set decoration, using Osage artists whenever possible. That level of involvement goes well beyond the original series’ treatment of Indigenous characters.
Language authenticity was treated as its own priority. Because characters speak Osage, the show also brought in Osage actor and language consultant Talee Redcorn to translate dialogue and coach actors to keep the language accurate. Netflix has said it consulted members of the Osage Nation for their perspective on the story, and the series is expected to explore the tensions between hopeful settlers seeking opportunity and the consequences of westward expansion on Indigenous communities.
Sonnenshine has framed this as part of a wider intention to widen the show’s focus. She said this approach aligns with a broader focus on the communities at the heart of the story, not just the Ingalls, but the people who share their world. That framing suggests the reboot is trying to hold two things at once, the intimacy of a family drama and a more honest accounting of the history surrounding it.
Beyond the historical reframing, Sonnenshine has also described the emotional core she hopes audiences take away. She called it a love story and a coming of age story about a family, one meant to leave people remembering the value of connection, adding that everyone could use a reminder of how important love, family and community are. Given how much of that sentiment is tied to a very specific stretch of prairie in Manitoba standing in for Kansas, it raises an obvious question for viewers who just finished the season, whether that rugged Canadian landscape captured the spirit of the Ingalls’ world better than the sunnier hills that filled in for it decades ago, and that seems worth hashing out in the comments.
