INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Star Wars Episode VIII’ Set To Film In Ireland While Abrams Explains Leia & Rey Hug

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 13:41 PST, Mar 9, 2016

Last year, the Star Wars crew went to Ireland to choose a location for the next installment in the latest Star Wars trilogy, Episode VIII. The place they visited was Malin Head, Ireland’s most northerly point, where they were scouting for locations.

The Derry Journal reported that the cast and crew of Star Wars Episode VIII will arrive in May to begin shooting in the new location. Their stay in Ireland should last around a month. Filming the first scenes of the movie could lead to a huge increase in tourism for the area.

The actual location for the filming is Skellig Michael, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in County Kerry. This was where the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was filmed. The movie ended with Luke Skywalker meeting Rey for the first time, and many fans have speculated that it could be the home of the first Jedi temple. Fans have also speculated that the Jedi temple could play a big part in the story line of the next episode.

Joan Crawford of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way said that the movie could do for this area what Game of Thrones did for Belfast.

“All we have to do is look at what the Game of Thrones has done for Belfast and even in much earlier days Ryan’s Daughter firmly established the Dingle Peninsula has one of the top destinations in the country.”

As previously reported in The Inquisitr, Daisy Ridley said that the trailer footage for Star Wars Episode VIII will be very different than the trailers for The Force Awakens and promises to be cheekier. So far, none of the details of the storyline for the next installment have been revealed, although fans have been told that the next episode will pick up where the The Force Awakens left off.

Director and executive producer J. J. Abrams also said that Disney is planning more movies since the success of The Force Awakens. Currently, there are five additional movies in the works, the next two installments of Star Wars, and then three anthology movies. Disney has potentially a total of 10 new movies with a new release each year.

Comic Book reported that J. J. Abrams gave the reason for the hug between General Leia and Rey. Although fans have speculated that the two knew each other, Abrams said they were meeting for the first time, and that the hug came from the strength of the Force.

“The idea [was] that both of them being strong with the Force and never having met, would [still] know about each other — that Leia would have been told about her beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia. And that reunion would be a meeting and a reunion all in one, and a sort of commiseration of their mutual loss.”

Although Abrams dashed the hopes of millions of Star Wars fans, the possibility still exists that General Leia knew who Rey was without having met her, or they met, but Rey didn’t remember because the memory had been wiped from her mind. Fans will have to wait until the release of the new movie to find out, or at least until the next set of trailers appear, which might uncover some of the mystery of General Leia and Rey’s relationship.

[Photo by Image Group LA/Getty Images]

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