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With all of the talk about how The Force Awakens and the Sequel Trilogy hew to the Original Trilogy, I got to wondering how many new planets we’ll see in the new movie.
For reference purposes, here’s what we saw in the OT:
- Star Wars: Tatooine, Yavin IV
- The Empire Strikes Back: Hoth, Bespin, Dagobah
- Return of the Jedi: Tatooine, Endor, Dagobah (let’s not count all the planets they show at the end of the Special Edition – we’re just looking at where the movie action takes place)
So, no more than three planets (plus the Death Stars, of course). Now, let’s look at the Prequels:
- The Phantom Menace: Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant
- Attack of the Clones: Naboo, Tatooine, Coruscant, Kamino, Geonosis
- Revenge of the Sith: Coruscant, Utapau, Mustafar, Kashyyyk, Naboo (plus miscellaneous other planets during the Order 66 montage)
A lot more planets, right?
Now, here’s what we know or think we know about The Force Awakens:
- Jakku
- Planet with lake and greenery where the X-wings fly
- Forest with snowfall where Kylo Ren is
- Rocky snowscape where all the First Order troops are
- Forested area with stone buildings where troopers and Phasma are (behind the scenes, Vanity Fair)
- Green hilly area where the Falcon is
- Rocky place where R2 is by the fire with who we think is Luke
That’s seven places, but if you step back and think about it another way, there could be repeats. We know it must be at least four:
- Jakku
- The First Order’s base (which must be what Starkiller base is in the snow, right?)
- A Resistance Base
- The home of Maz Kanata and the Pirates (which, granted, could be on Jakku or the Resistance planet, for all we know)
So it seems like there must be at least four planetary locations, which already makes it more broad in scope that any of the OT movies! So much for that comparison. 🙂
What do you think about the planetary scope of the upcoming film? Have your say in the comments!
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Her chain
Today’s question: Whose face did Luke see inside Darth Vader’s mask during his dark side vision on Dagobah?
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Why can’t a planet like Earth exist in the Star Wars Universe? Why do they all have to exhibit only one type of climate? Jakku could be similar to Earth and every scene from the movie could take place on that one planet!
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I know, right? It’s one of the goofiest things about the Star Wars universe. Over the years, I’ve come to think that it’s just an easy way for us all to help keep track of the story, so people can focus on the what, why, and how, and don’t have to concentrate too hard on the where.
Here’ the OT in a nutshell: First they were on the desert planet, and then they tried to go to the Earth-like planet but the bad guys blew it up, so they went to the jungle planet, and then the snow planet, then the swamp planet, then the cloudy planet, then the desert planet again, and the swamp planet again, and finally to the forest planet. See? It all makes sense! 😉