STAR WARS: EPISODE VII To Start Shooting May 14 In Morocco

We’ve been slowly lurching towards the start of production on Star Wars: Episode VII in fits and starts. It originally looked as if the highly-anticipated film would start filming back in the fall but thanks to script rewrites and resultant casting sessions, actual shooting on the film has been pushed back from expected dates to a point where work needs to commence soon or else director J J Abrams will be hard-pressed to have the film finished in time to meet its announced December 18, 2015 release date.

But it appears that things will finally be getting underway on May 14th, at least according to Badass Digest‘s sources who are telling the site that when the cameras do start rolling it will be in Morocco where the film will shoot for two weeks. Badass Digest editor Devin Farachi is speculating based on Morocco’s geography that this will mean a return to the planet Tatooine and that the production might even pop over to Tunisia, whose deserts have stood in for the planet in past Star Wars films.

I’m not sure that I buy into Farachi’s assumption that Morocco will be standing in for Tatooine any more than I bought into the idea that possible shooting in Iceland automatically equates a return to the planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a big galaxy and I would think that Abrams and company are savvy enough to explore that and introduce a few new worlds into the saga.