Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still over three months away and Rogue One is currently in the midst of production, but things are already getting into gear on the second sequel (this could get exhausting). Casting rumours have been flying around the internet in the past week, with Benicio del Toro seemingly locked as the movie's villain (my take on who exactly that could be is here), and now there's word the film is actually starting filming out at Skellig Michael, just off the coast of Ireland. This isn't part of the film's principal production, which is set to begin in March 2016, so is likely just some second unit location shots. Or something else... Spoilers/speculation begin now. You know the drill. Right, so Skellig Michael is also a location used in The Force Awakens, and one we know very little about at that. We've gleaned from location reports that Mark Hamill did some filming there, so it's been assumed as the location of an exiled Luke Skywalker, although whether that's true or not is totally up in the air. What we do know now is that it's somewhere that'll be revisited in the sequel. Which means it's probably pretty important in Episode VII - think Dagobah or Tatooine (or Naboo). When Lucasfilm first planned to do some shooting over at the rocky island, is was assumed it was J.J. Abrams doing some pick-ups for The Force Awakens. That makes little sense to anyone who understands how the production timeline of movies work, but neither does shooting a movie two years away from release ahead of its main production either, meaning there must be something more (unless the Episode VIII shoot is actually a cover for a last minute change to TFA). What if this is for a post-credits scene? It's not a typically Star Wars thing, but neither is having the Disney logo slapped on everything. Or perhaps it's for a scene involving the ghost of a dead character shot before the actor's single-film contract is up? It's all vague and murky speculation, but this is one of the clearest glimpses of the franchises future beyond The Force Awakens we've got. I've been really worried that the ongoing production of subsequent films (Colin Trevorrow revealed this week that he's already starting work on Episode IX) will lead to unintentional spoilers, just like the cast lists of upcoming Marvel films alleviates any fear of death in the present movies. Normally that'd be fine and I'd just ignore it, but this has been so widely reported it's impossible to avoid. Oh well, only 98 days to go. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out on 17th December in the UK and a day later in the US. Star Wars Episode VIII is pegged for a May 26th, 2017 release.
