Star Wars Episode VIII Filmed in Bolivia. Familiar Ship Teased?

A Spanish Star Wars fan site has worked tirelessly to confirm a month-old rumor about a filming location for Episode VIII, and they recently got the confirmation they sought through Lucasfilm themselves. At the filming location in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, a cockpit of a ship was seen, and its design may look somewhat familiar to fans of Return Of The Jedi.

 

From Prensa Imperial (Translated):

A new rumor adds to the string of headline news for Star Wars Episode VIII, this time from a Bolivian fan page.

According to the report, a reliable source revealed that a few months ago a filming unit made recordings for a film of the saga in the well-known Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. The informants, who were part of the production, did not specify for what movie the filming was for, but considering the date, they would have been made for Episode VIII since we did not see such places in Rogue One.

The place, recognized all over the world, has a characteristic landscape that would fit perfectly in the list of exotic landscapes that has in its history the saga, those that come to reaffirm the intentions of Lucasfilm in filming the greater amount of sequences in scenes to avoid excessive use of computer effects.

Prensa Imperial would later confirm that the rumors of filming were accurate (they specifically occurred in June 2016) and that the scene filmed was indeed included for a sequence in Episode VIII. Their report suggests that filming lasted for two days and involved none of the main cast, though a local of the area mentioned that he saw several Stormtroopers running. Some kind of special lighting was used during the scene to make the visuals of the scene stand out (since, as seen in the top image, the salt flat can look absolutely stunning and otherworldly under the right conditions). An image of the shoot was also shared on the website:

 

Does that cockpit look familiar? It should – it appears to be a modified version of a B-wing cockpit.

 

 

I should also note that the Resistance troop transport (which we see when Leia lands on Takodana) also has a B-wing cockpit, but the design of that ship looks significantly different from the one below.

 

 

So unless the Resistance transport gets a redesign, it’s most likely a B-wing or some other ship. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more classic ships return in Episode VIII – maybe alongside some new ones!

 

+ posts

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

56 thoughts on “Star Wars Episode VIII Filmed in Bolivia. Familiar Ship Teased?

  • January 11, 2017 at 11:23 pm
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    I love the b-wing desin, but please disney/lucasf, give us new ships! not just “updated” ones.

    • January 11, 2017 at 11:40 pm
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      U-Wing

      • January 11, 2017 at 11:49 pm
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        ..regarding new saga movies, I don’t have complains with RO in that matter.

        • January 12, 2017 at 6:19 pm
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          I would have to agree the Tie Fighter in TFA was rather poor IMO, more so when you look at the Tie Striker in R1.

          Otherwise we’ve updated X-Wings, plus Kylo Ren and Leia use new transports. I think its the lack of a interesting looking Tie Fighter that takes a prominent role that is the problem.

          • January 12, 2017 at 8:59 pm
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            The tie striker in Rogue One was clearly a short range planetary defense fighter meant for better atmospheric flight mechanics. Since we never saw an imperial planet defend itself in the OT, there is no reason we would have seen one. Fuck, I’m a nerd.

          • January 12, 2017 at 10:21 pm
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            Its a classy : )

            The Tie Fighter in TFA is IMO simply lacking, and better panels could of made it fresh.

    • January 12, 2017 at 12:12 am
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      idk, it made sense for me at least that the resistance would be reliant on older tech. the new republic on the other hand hopefully will have the new toys.

      • January 12, 2017 at 4:15 am
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        The New Republic always have the new toys for example they are using the T-85 X-Wing Starfighter and not the old T-70 that the Resistance are using

  • January 11, 2017 at 11:29 pm
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    Lukes Jedi B-Wing Advanced !

  • January 11, 2017 at 11:36 pm
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    I believe this to be my old padawan’s ship.

  • January 11, 2017 at 11:58 pm
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    Well we have already seen that A-wings are in Ep8….so why not bring back the B

    • January 12, 2017 at 12:11 am
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      That’s right! I nearly forgot about those being in the movie!

      – Pomojema

    • January 12, 2017 at 7:25 pm
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      Yeah, lets rehash everything!

    • January 12, 2017 at 7:39 pm
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      Let’s rehash it all!, again and again, new ships? nah.. why?.

      • January 12, 2017 at 8:57 pm
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        In 1897 an abrahms tank, an apache helicopter, and a 747 jet look just like the ones today. I’m all for something new, but a complete redesign of entire lines of ships is not realistic in reality, or in Star Wars. You need much longer than a 30 year gap for mass redesigns and that is in our world where advanced tech makes massive leaps every year, not a galaxy that has had established tech for tens of thousands of years.

        • January 13, 2017 at 2:10 am
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          I think the point is easy to see, I agree, and I would love to see familiar ones, even older than OT, like the Eta-2 class fighter, that would be amazing. But I think it is too silly to think they only can have two or three diferent models of fighters, it is big gallaxy, it is ridiculous to think they will only have those “updated” ships.

          And if people want to think they(new order/republic/rsistance) are short on resourses to build new ships, I’m sure there are old ships somewhere that we havent seen yet, as I said it is a big gallaxy, I refuse to think that there are only ties and x-wings flying arround, talking about fighters.

      • January 13, 2017 at 1:00 am
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        tell that to the military forces, why they rehash their technology

        • January 13, 2017 at 2:17 am
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          yes, but I’m pretty sure they have new machinery too, not only old stuff, a mix os old and new makes total sense. As I said before it is silly to think there is nothing more that ties and x-wings, or b-wings and a-wings or corelian falcons.

  • January 12, 2017 at 12:20 am
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    I like Leia’s ship. Am I alone?

    • January 12, 2017 at 2:34 am
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      No. And when people complain about TFA not having new ships, I think, “What about the Eravana? Kylo Ren’s shuttle? The Resistance troop ship?” The quadhopper was neat too, though we didn’t see enough of it.

      • January 12, 2017 at 4:41 am
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        *qwodjumpah

        • January 12, 2017 at 10:49 am
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          Poor boy. Meant to be savagely destroyed. It’ll always be in our hearts.

      • January 12, 2017 at 8:55 pm
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        On top of it, it was only 30 years. It’s not like cars changed that much over the last 30 years. Hell, trucks look almost exactly the same as do things like a 747 jet, an abrahms tank, or an aircraft carrier. People are acting like this was a 200 year jump. Things would look slightly different to accommodate moderate tech advances, but there aren’t going to be radical redesigns of everything in 3 decades.

        • January 13, 2017 at 2:40 am
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          We had new ships, from movie to movie, just to mention some, I know there are more:

          epI -> naboo fighters and droid fighters,
          epII -> jedi tarfighters and republic gunship,
          epIII -> Eta-2 and Arc-170,
          epIV-> x-wings and Tie-fighters,
          epV -> t47 speeder and slave1,
          epVI -> Tie interceptors, a-wings,
          epVII -> what?! x-wings and ties again??! and that ugly shuttle! (I love to write ugly shuttle)

          RO -> U-wing and Tie-striker

      • January 12, 2017 at 9:07 pm
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        Ren’s Shuttle was yet another variation on the Tyderium.

        • January 13, 2017 at 6:25 pm
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          An ugly variation that, unlike literally EVERY OT and PT design, presents not one good silhouette. It’s almost like the guy who used to be in charge knew that to be successful, stuff has to read in silhouette or something.

          • January 15, 2017 at 12:08 pm
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            Sorry, but I don’t see such an ugly design.

      • January 13, 2017 at 2:51 am
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        People, like me, complain about the lack of new ships, as protagonists, you have the quad-jumper, or the eravana, but those are merely in the background, almost a cameo in some cases.

  • January 12, 2017 at 1:20 am
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    Maybe this is where Leia has her accident? The Resistance try and relocate, but a FO star destroyer followed them, and then Leia crashes?

  • January 12, 2017 at 2:05 am
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    What films have the B wing appeared in?

    • January 12, 2017 at 2:49 am
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      just jedi.

    • January 12, 2017 at 5:28 am
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      I thought the Resistance craft thing in TFA was just a modified B-Wing with it’s S-Foils locked.

  • January 12, 2017 at 4:44 am
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    I never thought the B-wing ever got enough love considering it was only in Jedi for a bit, and my all video game and tv series accounts, it’s a pretty awesome ship with a lot of firepower. Though from the shot, I wonder what they’re doing with it

    • January 12, 2017 at 5:27 am
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      It’s my favorite OT fighter craft even thought it’s also technically a bomber. I love locking the S-Foils in the games and the fact it has an ion cannon as well as both proton torpedos AND concussion missiles.

    • January 13, 2017 at 12:46 am
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      hopefully it will get more play in rebels too.

  • January 12, 2017 at 5:26 am
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    I love Bolivia! Never been but it’s not somewhere we see in every other major film nowadays – Canada, Prague, Iceland, etc.

  • January 12, 2017 at 9:53 am
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    LOL, it’s the stupid ship of princess Leia, I mean general. The only new thing in VII was simply mindbogglingly dumb.

    • January 12, 2017 at 5:17 pm
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      wahhhhhhhhh

    • January 12, 2017 at 7:24 pm
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      It was the only NEW thing.

  • January 12, 2017 at 5:12 pm
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    That troop transport design is the dumbest thing in the universe.

    • January 13, 2017 at 12:22 am
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      Looks more like a small freighter for a part-time smuggler.

      • January 13, 2017 at 3:29 pm
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        It looks like the art design department turned in early that day.

    • January 20, 2017 at 9:47 am
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      I’m glad I’m not alone, that is one of my least favorite ship designs in the films

  • January 12, 2017 at 7:24 pm
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    Jeez, enough with the ‘classic’ ships…

  • January 12, 2017 at 8:53 pm
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    Please, for the love of the force, no more god damned DESERTS!!!!!

  • January 12, 2017 at 9:05 pm
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    Can’t they give us new ships? Especially on the imperial size. Are they not able to come up with anything?

    • January 13, 2017 at 12:41 am
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      they showed they could in rogue one. i can’t imagine they wouldn’t in the ST too… right?

  • January 12, 2017 at 11:52 pm
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    Why is it called a b wing all the other ships resemble the letters like the A Y X wing. This one doesn’t really look like a B

    • January 13, 2017 at 12:22 am
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      Because it’s a Blade-Wing.

      • January 14, 2017 at 11:55 pm
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        Ohhhh thanks

  • January 13, 2017 at 11:14 pm
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    Seems, cool. I love how LucasFilm is willing to go to unique different locations practically to film scenes like this. Personally, I think that is awesome. Not that I had issues with the PT. The backgrounds on a lot of planets, like Coruscant, Mustafar etc. were great. And while there were practical effects, they were obviously masked by the CGI.

    That said, I did wish TFA had more creative worlds. It is one of the reasons why I loved Rogue One; so many cool, new places mixed with the old. As for the B-wing appearing, that’s cool.

    I’m really into the ships of Star Wars. If anyone does ask me, my favorite ship is the Jedi Starfighter. I love its design. But I will say TFA, I wasn’t necessarily bothered by the lack of new ships(but an argument could be made as it is 30 years later), but just a lack of older ones.

    You’re telling me that the Resistance didn’t have old Y-wings or A-wings? Or that the First order don’t have Tie bombers? Heck, the First Order don’t even really have Star-destroyers. So yeah, I’m with the fans in wanting to see some older ships.

  • January 14, 2017 at 4:30 am
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    Nice. And I reckon Luke has an A-wing in this movie; last year Prince Harry was filmed sitting in the cockpit of what looked like an A-wing and was told it was Luke’s spaceship. Presumably because he left R2 behind, he used a fighter that didn’t need an astromech. Or room for adequate toilet facilities for a long space journey.

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