Star Wars: Episode 7 to Film Plate Shots in Iceland this April. A Possible Return to Hoth?

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JediNews discovered an interesting article from an Icelandic website revealing that a crew is coming over to Iceland in April to shoot some test plate shots for Episode 7. If the tests proof successful they might shoot more scenes with cast and crew…



According to their sources a filming crew have been recently in Iceland to see several filming locations. They also came to Iceland last year and spent about a week and went all over the country. They were mainly considering the Highlands and the Glaciers of Iceland. A potential location was Langjökull. Langjökull is the second largest ice cap in Iceland so could this mean that we might see another ice planet in Episode 7? Maybe even Hoth? Here is how Langjökull looks:

star wars

Plate shooting is when the shooting team takes pictures of the landscape then these images will be potentially used as a background together with the actors in the studio. They made something similar with Star Trek Into Darkness.

Source: visir

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

44 thoughts on “Star Wars: Episode 7 to Film Plate Shots in Iceland this April. A Possible Return to Hoth?

  • March 21, 2014 at 10:36 am
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    what did they do this for in Into Darkness?

  • March 21, 2014 at 10:55 am
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    Guess it would be impossible to return to Norway to film Hoth, if that’s the case. It’s to damn expensive. wich is a shame.

    • March 24, 2014 at 11:26 pm
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      they could go north of sweden instead of norway. in “norrland” (swedish for “northland) there are som really beatiful places & yes norway is very expensive, sweden is not

  • March 21, 2014 at 11:03 am
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    maybe a luke clone was made in the bactatank.

    • March 21, 2014 at 11:18 am
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      “What the?! You trying to drown that kid?! What are you injecting there? Is this the bloody Dark Ages?! Why don’t you just throw some leeches in there?! Oh nobody listen to Dr. Ball, he’s just an old fool!”

    • March 21, 2014 at 12:00 pm
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      Dude, srsly

  • March 21, 2014 at 12:20 pm
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    Wonder what ever happened to Darth Malgus. Sounds like something weird that he would say.

    • March 21, 2014 at 4:03 pm
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      Maglus got Palpatine’d. ei thrown of a ledge into the core of a space station which exploded soon after

    • March 21, 2014 at 6:07 pm
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      Darth Malgus is alive and well. He is currently employed as Chris Browns PR consultant.

  • March 21, 2014 at 12:57 pm
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    Wonder why the story would require a remote planet like Hoth for.. Hope they do indeed shoot on location. Film-making has become rather too focused on convenience rather than the blood, sweat, and tears that used to happen to produce something authentic, real, and awesome.

    • March 21, 2014 at 4:40 pm
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      youtube “Star Trek into darkness behind the scenes”, they do it more authentically than you might realize, and that same crew and production company will be working on Episode VII I believe.

    • March 21, 2014 at 5:43 pm
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      Although that being said I’d prefer to see a return to using ship models instead of CGI… it sounds like they might but I’m not sure. The enterprise in the new Star Treks was CGI’d… though it doesn’t look bad, but models just give that extra sense of dimension. Based on what I’ve been reading it seems like they might use a combo of ship models and CGI which would be awesome.

    • March 21, 2014 at 8:41 pm
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      “they do it more authentically than you might realize”
      umm no. I’ve seen all the behind scenes stuff and they didn’t shoot on location. Let’s take the original star wars as an example, they went to Norway. They went to Tunisia. They went all over the world to shoot. But now it’s a matter of the money and convenience. And like star trek into darkness, they shot on bluescreen out the back of a studio.

    • March 22, 2014 at 12:26 am
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      GASP! You mean other movies other than the Prequel Trilogy shot films on bluescreen on set?

    • March 22, 2014 at 6:03 pm
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      Lol yes it’s true! Drives me mad when people say the prequels were bad because of the bluescreen and jar jar binks and blah blah blah. No they are bad films because they were awfully written and directed drivel.

    • March 24, 2014 at 7:43 pm
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      I wasn’t trying to start an argument, I was hoping to ease your concerns.

      We have no idea what they might be using these shots for, if they will even be used. A ton of scenes in star wars were shot in front of matte paintings. I do agree with you, I hope that if there is a hoth-ish scene that they would haul the actors out to Norway or Iceland or wherever.

      So what I meant with the “authentic” production is that when you see the sets, there is a remarkably small amount of green screen involved. Just look at the bridge of the Enterprise in JJ’s StarTrek… even the display screens are “real”. Scotty’s alien friend is “real”, etc, etc, etc.

      In episode III they couldn’t even bother with using a real stick as Yoda’s cane, they CGI’d that and it looked like shit. I don’t think JJ’s production crew will be that lazy. (not to knock Lucasfilm’s production staff… they are the best around, but they improperly utilized).

      I think there’ll be way more “real” stuff as opposed to entirely green screen sets like those of the prequels. I do remember reading that the amount of set construction is comparable to what was built for ROTJ… perhaps someone here knows the source for that info.

      Also keep in mind there weren’t really many locations to go to in the new Star Trek, they were mostly on the ship in space. The only scenes that were really “environments” was the red tree planet at the start, the klingon homeworld, and the cities, none of which exist here on earth… sort of hard to shoot on location for that right? Who knows… I think they might go shoot in other locations… no one’s said they would or wouldn’t do that yet.

      I’m a representational artist and I’ve got to say the new Star Treks were pretty convincing… I didn’t feel as if what I was looking at was fake… aside from maybe the ships just a little bit, but they still looked pretty good… well that’s why I hope they use models… we’ll see.

  • March 21, 2014 at 2:04 pm
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    Ilum maybe? force crystals?

  • March 21, 2014 at 2:15 pm
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    Hmm, Hoth was present because it was a remote place to hide, having no other significance outside the Expanded Universe. I’d bet that would be a new planet.

    • March 21, 2014 at 2:54 pm
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      It could STILL be a good place to hide but maybe for Sith? There was a nice Rebel outpost just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe some new tenants have moved in while they build their ranks. Could be Luke has a score to settle with a one armed Wampa or maybe he’s lost contact with a certain force ghost and is going back to where he first made contact. OR it could be Luke is training new Jedi and takes them to Hoth for their final exam? Perhaps something was left behind when they had to leave in such a hurry. This is why I like these little tidbits about production. It’s fun to speculate.

  • March 21, 2014 at 2:56 pm
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    Hmm, Iceland looks pretty. Could be Hoth. Could be a different planet. By the way, did the go to Colorado or Norway for Hoth when they were fliming for TESB?

    God Bless and No Rude Replies Please (Hmm, I’m starting to think I’m getting to annoyingly formal with my ending)

    Tigress

    • March 26, 2014 at 8:42 pm
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      Thank you, Fettman. 🙂

      God Bless,
      Tigress

  • March 21, 2014 at 4:01 pm
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    I hope not. There’s not much reason to be on Hoth unless you’re hiding from an Empire, which should be dead and gone 30 years after Return of the Jedi.

    • March 21, 2014 at 4:10 pm
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      The Empire should be dead and gone? The GALACTIC Empire? No, they shouldn’t be gone, you can’t just destroy something that owned the majority of the galaxy and had fleets of tens, if not hundreds of thousands Star Destroyers..

    • March 21, 2014 at 4:42 pm
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      I really hope it will still be the empire vs rebels. But I have a feeling it will be about the rebuilding of the republic or some other boring stuff.

    • March 21, 2014 at 6:17 pm
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      There may have been some remnants maybe 5 or 10 years after Return of the Jedi, but I find it highly improbably that the Empire would exist 30 years after its Emperor had been killed. I fear that trying to pursue an Empire vs. Rebels scenario would be far more boring than pursuing new ground.

    • March 21, 2014 at 8:47 pm
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      Well they’d still be going on adventures and there would still be lightsabers and star wars stuff even if they did pursue new ground.. I would be the same as if they did have Rebels vs Empire because it will be a new villain and plot. I do wonder what the threat is of these new films. I just hope it’s not something silly like the prequels. Hopefully an alien invasion or as I say, the empire. The prequels threat just felt so tiny with Sidious cropping up in a few scenes, and talking about getting a queen to sign a treaty and with a load of useless droids, and darth maul who was mindnumbingly boring then just died anyway while they had council meetings talking about it all and tax trade routes and dear god it was just awful.. I hope there’s actually a really huge threat like the empire was.

  • March 21, 2014 at 4:28 pm
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    for all we know it could just be for snowy mountains in the background of a lush rainforrest.

    • March 21, 2014 at 6:20 pm
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      That wouldn’t really be cost effective though… Just saying.

    • March 21, 2014 at 7:35 pm
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      they used those mountains in the sea off thailand? i think (look the same as the ones in the man with the golden gun) as background plates for kashyyyk …. or so the commentary track tells me ….. so expence aint really an issue

  • March 21, 2014 at 10:02 pm
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    Sure looks mighty Hoth-ey to me! I wonder how they plan to work it into the story if they actually are planning on returning to Hoth?

    • March 22, 2014 at 12:24 am
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      They’ll find a way to work it in, even if it doesn’t make sense. If it’s part of the Original Trilogy (particularly TESB) it’ll be in VII.

  • March 21, 2014 at 11:56 pm
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    Yes, Darth Vader conceived a love child while he was on Hoth just after the Rebels fled and just before he returned to his Star Destroyer. He raped one of the female Rebel prisoners that did not get away in time.
    It was kept secret from the Emperor, only a couple of imperial officers new about it and they were too scared to say anything otherwise risk Darth Vader’s force choke.
    The child (Luke and Leia’s half brother) who has his fathers Dark Side evil within him remained on Hoth, has now grown up and seeks revenge on the Skywalker’s.

    Vader’s secret love child will be played by Adam Driver.

    This will all be explained in the opening crawl of Episode VII.

    • March 22, 2014 at 12:33 am
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      I don’t think Vader has a penis. Lava ‘n shit are kinda bad for that.

    • March 22, 2014 at 9:42 am
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      Star Wars Ep.VII. The Days of our Lives.

  • March 22, 2014 at 12:23 am
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    I wonder why anybody in their right mind would go back to the frigid enviornment of Hoth, especially when the Rebels don’t need to hide anymore from the Empire.

    • March 22, 2014 at 3:33 pm
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      Maybe someone left their wallet behind.

  • March 25, 2014 at 12:33 am
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    it would very cool if the filmed inside the glacier. there could be some new interesting alien race living there

  • March 29, 2014 at 6:47 am
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    So is the plate shooting what they did with the Mustafar scenes in Episode III?

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