The real Scottish locales that inspired the upcoming Final Girls comic
A deconstructionalist superhero finds a welcome home in♔ Scotland

The upcoming comiXology Originals series is an i෴rreverent deconstruction of the superhero genre (and the superhero job description), b🥀ut part of the charm of this working-class superhero drama is its primary setting - particularly the real world of Scotland.
Most of The Final Girls is based in and around Scotland, with several real-life locations popping up for those that live in (or have visited) the nation mos💝t famous for mountains and whisky. Not that there aren't mountains of whisky in The Final Girls - but expect the unexpected more often than not.
"The Final Girls is about a group of ex-work-for-hire superheroes navigating through the fall-out a🍎nd harm caused by their superhero colleagues," says artist Sally Cantirino. "▨It's a comic about what abuse of power, reparative justice, and real change could look like."
Part dark comedic superhero story and part dystopian political thriller, The Final Girls is also a love letter to Scotland f𝕴rom Cantirino, writer Cara Ellison, colorist Gab Contreras, letterer Joamette Gil, and editor Katie West.
Cloisters pub, Edinburgh
Lette𒁏rer Joamette Girl has jokingly labeled The Final Girls' Styx pub as "the arse end of nowhere," as it's meant to be somewhere in the rambling countryside villages of Scotland. It's actually based on Cloisters Pub, which is in a parsꦉonage next to a Catholic church in Edinburgh.
"I used to live right behind it, and there's a secret alleyway by that bush Sally has drawn rath🌳er accurately that you can use to get back to my old apartment," says Ellison. "The Secret Alley can be hazardous to navigate when drunk. I constantly got old condoms stuck to my shoes by using it too. And yet, I did not stop using the shortcut.
"Personally I think that putting a pub inside an old religious building, a Scottish habit at this point, rather implies how one pastime has overtaken the oth🤡er in Scotland," s🐓he adds.
Get the best comic news, insights, opinions, an💃alysis and more!
Royal Circus, Edinburgh
"I don𒆙't know whether it's true or not, but locals used to say that Sean Connery had a townhouse on this street that Sally has drawn at a masterful angle to show its curve," Ellison says🎶.
Edinburgh's Royal Circus is home to some of the most expensive townhouses in the city. Americans might see the streets and be reminded of a classic BBC period piece or even Mary Poppins, but you'd need a salary muc꧒h bigger than that of a governess to afford living there.
"When I was in my early twenties, I knew one of Scotland's Most Eligible Bachelors and he had a place here," says Ellison. "The parties were out of control. He had a grand piano in the ‘drawing room' in his townhous𓆉e here."
In The Final Girls, Ash and Claymore live in this area - and thats m🔯eant to say something about how rich they are, and how removed they are from the majority of Scots and superheroes in general.
"Ash at this point has become more of a symbol or social media star than a worki⭕ng superhero; 'work' has become more about image and performance for her," Ellison says. "Claymore just gets the Silicon Valley money: he's the💦 shadow Tony Stark."
Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Glasgow
The Glasgow Royal Infirmary isn't restricted to the rich, but if you come into some health troubles while in the area it's a necesꦛsity.
"I've never had the pleasure of visiting here, but my longtime friend from university Naomi works in emergency medicine, and Osua is based on her (with permission!)," says Ellison. "Osua, just like Naomi, doesn't have time for timewasters, but she is an extremely good doctor. I don't know if Naomi has the 🅺power to control rainclouds. If she does she has been pranking my house for the last three days."
Fraserburgh Beach
This locale from T🐻he Final Girls required a bit of 'artistic license' as they say, as there aren't actual oil rigs🃏 this close to the beach. This bit of fiction is to help the story, but also pulls from Ellison's real-life experiences growing up about 40 miles south in Aberdeen, which is off the North Sea.
"The North Sea was home to an oil boom in the '80s, and a lot of people flocked there, including my family, to work in the oil business," she explains. "A few years after I was born, in 1988, the Piper Alpha disaster happened. An explosion on the oil platform killed 167 men and cost Occidental Petroleum £1.7 billion. The fallout of this tragedy dominated my childhood and the memorials feature heavily in my memories of Ab🧸erdeen.
"Many people who grew up in that part of Scotland knew of someone who had died on the platf🦋orm," Ellison continues. "Even though there hasn't been a disaster of this magnitude since, I still think about the way capitalism endangers people who don't have much choice𒆙 in their line of work, and so the oil platforms around Scotland still feature heavily in the way I think about the Scottish working class."
Loch Lomond, Scotland
"Gab Contreras, The Final Girls' colorist, knocked this out of the park. Didn't she?" Ellison says. "These are the colors of Scotland. Sall🦩y Cantirino and Gab together are a force.
"This is how Loch Lomond feels. It feels likꦇe an expanse of water where the sky participates. Anyone, especially super🦂heroes, would be lucky to contemplate their existence here."
Newsarama is a comiꩵc book website covering news, interviews, features, deep dives, reviews and more. Now part of GamesRadar, the website was first established in 1995 by Michael Doran.