Extra! Extra! Read all about it! New Star Wars: Episode VII rumor predicts J.J. Abrams’ sequel will center on a singing competition between Jedi and Sith, and…wait no, that’s not right. The latest round of gossip instead involves a well-known setting possibly reappearing in the highly anticipated flick, as hinted at by location speculation. In other words, you may want to buy a grain of salt to go with this story.
According to the Icelandic news site Visir.is (via Metro), part of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII will take place in Iceland, which is a slight departure from the U.K.-bound production that has previously been revealed. The source seems to think this is a good sign that some of the film's story might take place on the cold and barren planet of Hoth, where Han Solo memorably saved Luke Skywalker's life by surrounding him with tauntaun guts in The Empire Strikes Back.
Of course, that particular bit of guesswork may not make a whole lot of sense, depending on where the production chooses to shoot in Iceland. As know-it-alls love to point out, the country isn’t generally bogged down beneath mounds of snow and ice as its name implies, especially during the relatively calm month of May when crews are planning to head out there. Granted, it’s possible my understanding is droid-pucky and there are multitudes of snow-covered expanses that could serve as Hoth exteriors.
Whichever way it goes, there is only the slightest chance that we’ll see anything resembling the sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, as the production crew will mostly be shooting landscape plate shots that will serve as scenery inspiration within the film itself. Given Abrams' penchant for keeping everything a secret, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Iceland shoot is just a decoy while they send a film crew out to the moon and Mars to get the "real" shots they want to use.
It’s not as though anything we know about Star Wars: Episode VII's story can point us in any specific direction. It’s been confirmed that Episode VII will take place 30 years after the end of Return of the Jedi. The story will follow at least two young heroes, >one male and one female, and we have also heard that there is a single male villain, which Girls’s Adam Driver will reportedly play.
And of course, there’s R2-D2. Didn’t mean to leave you out, little guy.
The closer we get to Star Wars: Episode VII’s December 18, 2015 release date, the more we will know about the movie. In the meantime, did you ever wonder what the Battle of Hoth was really like?
