Despite the film’s Finn and Rose side plot, Star Wars: The Last Jedi remains an anomaly in the series for how little planetary exploration it features, with the bulk of its main storyline consisting of a lengthy chase between two sets of ships in the vacuum of space. Whether this change of approach worked for you or not, it looks like Star Wars: Episode IX could be resuming the tradition of basing stories around the constant movement between regions, as the J.J. Abrams-helmed trilogy-closer is said to include more planets that any other Star Wars movie to date.
In an earlier video, YouTuber Mike Zeroh suggested that one of these locations might be Darth Vader’s castle on Mustafar. Now, Zeroh’s back to speculate on another section of the Star Wars galaxy that our heroes could be venturing to, and this time, it’s the potential setting for an appearance from one General Leia Organa.
According to this new video, the crew for next year’s release are scheduled to shoot in the forest region of Puzzlewood in Gloucestershire, England. These woodlands were previously the setting of the Takodana scenes in The Force Awakens, so it’s only natural to suspect that this area will be serving the same purpose this time around. And since actress Lupita Nyong’o is said to be shooting a scene with set designs similar to those we saw in this region, Zeroh argues that perhaps our heroes will be revisiting Maz Kanata on her home planet once more.
On top of that, it’s believed that footage previously shot of the late Carrie Fisher in Puzzlewood will be used in the upcoming film. With the aid of digital trickery, it’s certainly possible that these clips will be altered to depicted a new location for Leia, but based on the little evidence we have, a return to the place where Rey first acquired Luke’s lightsaber – if only in flashback – seems a little more likely at this point.
Perhaps this isn’t much to go on, but it feels like a vague idea of what to expect from Star Wars: Episode IX is starting to take shape. And you can expect the theorizing to continue right up until the film’s release on December 20th, 2019.