A cliff on the Outer Banks? Here’s why you’re seeing one in new Netflix promo poster

A cliff on the Outer Banks? Here’s why you’re seeing one in new Netflix promo poster

“Oh, the beautiful cliffs of North Carolina’s Outer Banks,” said no one, ever. Whether you’re a fan or a hater of Netflix’s hit “Outer Banks” series, you may have heard that the show will be back for its third season soon — Feb. 23, to be exact. The streaming platform announced the Season 3 premiere date Tuesday, posting a series of “first look” photos on social media. And, as it has since the show launched in April 2020, the series is once again generating online discussions and jokes, similar to the one above, about its depictions of North Carolina geography and landscapes. The supposed gaffe in question this time? The poster features what appears to be much of the show’s cast — the “Pogues,” or the working class locals of the barrier islands — standing on a cliff above the ocean. Yes, a cliff.

Since the poster was released Tuesday, social media users familiar with the real-life Outer Banks have been commenting on the cliff, believing it to be an error, or at least a misleading photo, that wrongly depicts the landscape of North Carolina’s coast. “Are the OBX cliffs close to the ferry to Chapel Hill?” one Twitter user asked Wednesday, referencing an infamous Season 1 gaffe on the show that implied two main characters took a ferry from the Outer Banks to Chapel Hill. So, why is there a cliff on the new poster? Is it supposed to actually be on the real Outer Banks?

We have answers. (Beware: light spoilers ahead.) WHY IS THERE A CLIFF ON NEW OBX NETFLIX POSTER? We’ll keep this fairly short: No, the cliff is not supposed to be on the real-life Outer Banks. That’s what’s implied by the ending of the previous season, at least, when the Pogues end up on a deserted island they dub “Poguelandia.” Outer Banks. Rudy Pankow as JJ in episode 301 of Outer Banks. Cr. Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix © 2022 JACKSON LEE DAVIS/NETFLIX

Though the show is called “Outer Banks” and is set on North Carolina’s coast, much of last season was set away from its namesake locale, as the Pogues continued their quest for hidden treasure that began in Season 1. The Pogues’ adventures took them to the Bahamas and Charleston, South Carolina, before they returned home to OBX, then left again. At the end of Season 2, they board a large boat. They eventually all go overboard from the large ship, boarding a smaller lifeboat that they take to Poguelandia. The Season 2 finale shows the Pogues seemingly having a good time on their deserted island, surfing and gathering around a fire, among other activities. (Back home on the Outer Banks, the Pogues are believed to have disappeared, and search efforts, led by the local sheriff, get underway.