Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie reportedly eyes Scotland Highlands as filming location
The next Star Wars film is still scheduled to come out in December 2023. Now, there are some details coming to light about pre-production for this film.
Film crews will be headed to the Scottish Highlands this December to take some establishing shots for the setting of the next Star Wars film. This shoot said to include mountainous, snow-capped shots, but details are slim on what other, if any, potential terrains would be filmed. The news was first broken by a source for Scotland’s Daily Record.
While the plot of the film is a closely-guarded secret, what is known is that this shoot is for Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie, which may or may not be a part of a separate trilogy (although The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is also supposedly working on a trilogy of his own). Waititi is best known for directing Thor: Ragnarok and the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit.
Even the film crew on site in Scotland will be as minimal as possible to keep secrets hidden, with the source from the Daily Record stating that:
"It will likely be a small crew an an assistant director heading to Scotland to film over three days."
This type of filming, which makes use of skeleton crews, is not unusual. While doing press for The Force Awakens back in 2015, director J.J. Abrams talked about the limitations of filming on the Irish island of Skellig Michael, stating that he could only bring around 45 crew members. The scenario in Scotland sounds like it will be extremely similar.
The Scottish tourism board is likely thrilled by the uptake in interest in Scotland as a filming location for Hollywood movies, especially with many productions on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Scottish Highland spokesperson stated in the report:
"It is particularly welcome to see an increase in interest in Highland at the moment as many productions are unable to film overseas and are looking for different and high-quality locations in the UK."
Related Story. Pedro Pascal and Jon Favreau talk The Mandalorian on the big screen. light
More details will likely come out about Waititi’s galaxy far, far away in the years to come. The next Star Wars film is slated for theatrical release on Dec. 22, 2023.