Star Wars film locations around the world you can actually visit

How nerd-tastic can one city be? Well, in the case of this beautiful and ancient seaside city known as the Pearl of the Adriatic, very. Before The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson sent Finn and Rose there to find a renowned codebreaker in the Canto Bight casino, it was the capital of the seven kingdoms and the Lannister stronghold on HBO’s Game of Thrones where it is the real-world equivalent of King’s Landing.

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There was trouble in paradise for the unlikely heroes of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that falls in between the first two trilogies. Laamu Atoll in the Maldives, a growing honeymoon destination, was the site of the film’s massive final battle, Architectural Digest explains. Director Gareth Edwards, just as George Lucas before him, designed skirmishes with World War II engagements as models. The villains had established a base on the planet of Scarif and were keeping the blueprints for the Death Star there. We think Edwards might have just wanted an excuse to go to South Asia and the breathtaking Indian Ocean. “Scarif is a paradise world so we had to go to paradise to film it,” he said during a panel at the 2016 Star Wars Celebration. He added that they enlisted Maldivian soldiers, who had no idea what Star Wars was, to play Stormtroopers.

This Docklands district Underground station on the Jubilee line opened in 1999 and in 2016, it became another Stormtrooper-filled spot on Scarif in Rogue One according to BuzzFeed. Edwards revealed at the 2016 Star Wars Celebration that the reason he used that particular Tube station was personal. “My first job in television was just around the corner and I used to pass it every day,” Edwards said, “[I thought,] ‘This is something from the future. This is like a sci-fi movie, If I ever do sci-fi in my life, I’m gonna film it here.’ We were trying to figure out how to do these really long shots that involve a lot of running and building big massive sets and we were trying to be clever about it. I was like. ‘Let’s film it at the Docklands.’ They were like, ‘Ha ha ha, very funny.’” But Edwards got to fulfil his dream despite it being a logistical nightmare. They had to wait until the station closed and had to be finished at 4 am when it reopened for commuters. They barely made the deadline. “As we left, everyone wearing suits came in and we were like, ‘Morning, morning.’” It also appeared in 2002 in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later.

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The impressive and looming limestone karsts and secluded tropical bays of Phang Nga Bay in Thailand have been a popular holiday destination long before Hollywood came calling. But its stock in trade certainly isn’t hurt by its association with Star Wars. It was used as plate photography for the planet Kashyyyk, Chewbacca’s birthplace, where the Rebels stage a counterattack against what will become the Empire, in Revenge of the Sith, according to Mental Floss. For certain scenes, shots of Guilin, China were combined with ones from Thailand to enrich the textures.

Naboo was also the home planet of the Gungans, an amphibious sentient species that produced one of the most controversial (and almost universally annoying) characters in the entire written and cinematic SW canon – Jar Jar Binks. In The Phantom Menace, Jedi Qui Gon (Liam Neeson) runs into (literally!) the creature when the Trade Federation attacks his village. As the two flee through the woods, they reconnect with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) who questions, “What’s this?” The scenes were filmed in the Whippendell Wood, which were once a part of the Cassiobury estate, now one of the best parks in the country according to a Keep Britain Tidy poll, in Watford, Hertfordshire in England.

Spreading across more than 6,500 square kilometres, Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat and a major source of the world’s lithium, according to National Geographic. It was also the site of an eye-catching major battle in The Last Jedi. The rebels make a last stand of sorts on the planet of Crait, where under the dry white surface crimson sand sits. Of course, traipsing around the salty plain won’t kick up blood-red dust as the fighters and bullets do in the movie, but the endless horizon at 3,600 metres above sea level makes for spectacular holiday photos and it’s now home to the world’s first salt hotel.

Another day, another desert planet. According to Visit Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest uninterrupted sand mass, the Rub Al Khali (aka the Liwa Desert and the Empty Quarter), in the westernmost region of Al Dhafra was the first filming location for The Force Awakens and in the in the Star Wars-verse is known as the isolated world of Jakku. Director J.J. Abrams said of the six-month experience, “Filming in Abu Dhabi was an incredible thing. Star Wars is a western and a fairy tale … shooting [there] was just that.” Abrams and company descended on the desert in May 2014 to film things like Poe Dameron and Finn’s crash on Jakku, Rey’s scavenger market, and Finn and Rey’s first meeting. They worked in secret under the title Avco, which is actually the name of the now-defunct movie theatre in Los Angeles where Abrams saw the original in 1977.

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Like with the Mount Etna situation, Lucas supplemented green screen action with real-life photography to enhance the realism of the background of another setting in Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. A camera crew was dispatched to Grindelwald to capture some gorgeous Swiss Alps scenery to use as the backdrop for Alderaan, the snowy-peaked and doomed home base of Princess Leia, according to Architectural Digest.

This is another circumstance where art imitates life. Villa del Balbianello, an 18^th century mansion perched on a Lake Como, is a very popular and exclusive wedding venue. In Episode II: Attack of the Clones, it’s manicured gardens, historic buildings and photogenic balcony provide the backdrop to Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala’s love story, their secret wedding, and ultimately the romantic night that produced Luke and Leia (although that wasn’t shown in the final edit of the family film) before Anakin went full dark side. It all took place while they were on her home planet of Naboo. The duo also picnicked in a nearby meadow full of Shaaks, which along with a waterfall and the mountains were added and enhanced in post-production with special effects.

According to The Location Guide, the cast of Solo: A Star Wars Story spent about three weeks shooting on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, after they’d finished up in England and the Dolomites. When the Millennium Falcon is badly damaged during a slave revolt on Kessel, Han and company wind up landing on Savareen, which is the area of the island known as Cañada La Barca in real life, and have to deal with multiple doublecrosses. It was not the first time the franchise had filmed in Spain. The Plaza de España in Seville subbed for the exterior of Theed on Naboo in Attack of the Clones. Anakin and Padmé walk through the plaza before the pair go into hiding in the Lake Country.

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Source: RD.com