It’s less than a week until the eighth main chapter of the Star Wars universe is released. This is the calm before the storm, and a moment that should be embraced. Most fans (if they didn’t dive into the extended universe that’s now been wiped from the history books) haven’t seen or heard from Luke Skywalker for thirty years, but now we’ll finally see Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley complete that baton pass of Luke’s old lightsaber, and with it, there will be a changing of the guard to a new generation. We’re on the precipice of history. Everything’s about to change.
That’s why it’s healthy to not dwell on the high-stakes and very real potential that Rian Johnson’s movie may ignite internet arguments that will last for years after Star Wars: The Last Jedi drops. So for now, we should be focusing on a new behind-the-scenes featurette that not only familiarize us with the new planets of Episode VIII, but remind us that the grand tradition of Star Wars filming on-location in exotic locales is still alive and well. The first Star Wars went to Tunisia, The Last Jedi went to Westeros.
“Luke’s island” Skellig Michael seems quaint in comparison to to Dubrovnik, Croatia which also is King’s Landing in Game of Thrones. Even if Canto Bright is supposed to be an otherworldly planet that also features the seat of the king in another galaxy far, far away, the new planets and their cultures seem right at home in the Star Wars universe, but they also feel completely fresh and new. It really does feel like Star Wars. Just like this: