A new Star Wars movie - either Episode IX or Rian Johnson's new trilogy - is set to start filming scenes in Scotland in June 2018. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the studio also announced a new trilogy that would kick off in 2015 with J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Disney and Lucasfilm also planned a number of anthology movies that would hit theaters in between each episodic installment, the first of which was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that premiered in 2016. Most recently, Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi debuted.
Even before The Last Jedi premiered, though, Disney and Lucasfilm were pleased with the writer-director's work and announced Johnson will have his own Star Wars trilogy, one that's expected to be completely unconnected to the Skywalker Saga. Since none of the films in Johnson's trilogy have a release date, and Lucasfilm is set to debut Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode IX in 2018 and 2019, respectively, it's unclear when The Last Jedi filmmaker's movies will actually hit theaters. Still, at least one new Star Wars movie is heading into production next year.
Related: What We Know About Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy
Daily Record is reporting that a new Star Wars movie is set to start filming in Scotland in June 2018, specifically in the county of Argyll and the pass called Rest and Be Thankful. However, Daily Record also reports that the Star Wars movie set to film is the first installment of Johnson's upcoming trilogy, which would be the first word of those films heading into production. Their source said:
As is now customary with any Star Wars production, the movie is shrouded in secrecy but they want to shoot scenes around the Rest and Be Thankful. Further filming has been pencilled in for elsewhere in the country.
With that said, Johnson's trilogy does not yet have a story in place, let alone a set writer or director for each of the three movies (it's not yet clear how many of the three films Johnson will write and/or direct). However, Abrams is set to return for Episode IX, and the final installment in the newest Star Wars trilogy is set to start filming in June 2018. So, it's much more likely that the Lucasfilm production scheduled to film in Scotland next summer is Abrams' Episode IX, not the first movie in Johnson's new trilogy.
Of course, fans of Johnson's work on The Last Jedi are no doubt eager to see what the writer-director will do with the free reign of a Star Wars trilogy unconnected to the established storyline. Perhaps some of the biggest criticisms of The Last Jedi - particularly the way it followed through on mysteries set up in The Force Awakens, and its handling of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) - arise from it being the middle chapter of someone else's trilogy. So, when Johnson is allowed to create his own trilogy set in a galaxy far, far away, it may be a more crowd-pleasing affair - though that remains to be seen.
Still, it's too early yet in the development process on Johnson's Star Wars movies to believe they'll be able to begin filming in six months time. Instead, we can presume that the Star Wars project looking to film in Scotland next year is actually Abrams' Episode IX, which will look to wrap up the storylines of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi while bringing this latest trilogy to an epic conclusion.
Next: Everything We Know For Sure About Star Wars: Episode 9
Source: Daily Record
