In 2011, “The Walking Dead” needed to find a downtown to turn into a fictional city for Season 3 of what was becoming the biggest basic cable show of all time.
Michael Riley, locations manager for the AMC zombie series, thought of the town of Senoia, Georgia, 35 miles southwest of Atlanta, with its charming stretch of historic buildings and its distinctive water tower.
At Maguire’s Irish Pub, dozens of local business owners listened as Riley laid out plans to transform the city into a post-apocalyptic enclave, “Woodbury.” That meant building a gate entrance, with fake sentries, that could be rolled in at one end of Main Street during shoots, forcing customers to enter stores and restaurants from the rear.
