#STAR WARS SCENERY SNOWY HOW TO#

Hardangerjøkulen Glacier and Finse, NorwayĪppears in: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)Īs far as landscapes go, perhaps one of the most striking shifts in Star Wars scenery happens at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, when the desolate, sandy expanses that helped established Star Wars’ visual identity in A New Hope are replaced by the frozen, impassable tundra of the planet Hoth.

#STAR WARS SCENERY SNOWY HOW TO#

How to get there: Rent a car and drive up from San Francisco or Sacramento. (Also worth mentioning: The Bigfoot Capital of the World also sits about an hour from the park, and if you ask us, he and Chewie don’t really look all that different, do they?) California’s weather is absolutely perfect for sleeping outside and watching pieces of the Death Star trickle down through the atmosphere.

Consider setting up camp and roughing it for a few days and nights. The parks, home to the legendary herculean redwood trees, abound with walking paths, backcountry hiking trails, and campgrounds.

It’s been said that both the Tall Trees Redwood Grove in the Redwood National Park and the Avenue of the Giants in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park were used as filming locations for the sanctuary moon and the epic battle sequence. The Ewoks might’ve been a shameless George Lucas merchandising grab, but it turns out they totally knew how to pick their spots: The Redwood parks in California are some of the most gorgeous natural places on this or any other planet. Return of the Jedi introduced us to the ass-kicking alien teddy bears known as Ewoks, who in the final moments got their act together and helped the Rebels repel the Empire from their native forest moon of Endor. Redwood National and State Parks, California How to get there: Death Valley sits just outside the town of Beatty, about a two hour drive from the Las Vegas Strip. Keep an eye out for the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Artists Palette, the Artist’s Drive, Desolation Canyon, Dante’s View, and more, all of which played host to the cast and crew. And if you can believe it, the landscapes here may look even more impressive in real life than they do in George Lucas’s masterpieces. If you’ve got a bad feeling about this location, worry not: the name (and the heat) are the scariest thing about it. When R2-D2 and C-3PO split after crashing their escape pod when R2 gets kidnapped by Jawas when Mos Eisley debuts with a sweeping establishing shot-the list goes on!-it’s Death Valley you’re seeing. Footage from several famous sections of this behemoth national park was combined with shots from North Africa to create the landscapes of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. It's widely known that Tunisia set the stage for Luke's home planet, Tatooine-but Death Valley National Park, which sits on the California-Nevada border, did its fair share of the scenic heavy lifting. Īppears in: A New Hope (1977) and Return of the Jedi (1983) * Editors note: Out of respect for the fans, we choose not to acknowledge the cultural black hole that was the Holiday Special. Here are twelve Star Wars filming locations around the world and how to visit them yourself. George Lucas may not be able to direct dialogue to save his life, but he sure as hell knew how to scout out rad places for a film shoot. Perhaps to distract from the scripts.) You don’t have to jump into hyperspace to meander along the craggy, wind-battered trails of an Irish island, look high up in wonder at the world’s tallest trees, or explore pre-Columbian ruins in Central America. (Weirdly, the prequels were great at finding amazing filming locations. It’s not everywhere on Earth, after all, that can stand in for remote moons in ancient galaxies. and some of the prettiest freakin’ places on this planet. Now at 12* installments and counting-not to mention shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett (aka The Mandalorian Season 2), and the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries-the films have been shot on a ton of green-screened sound stages. No movies more famously transport their audiences to locales far, far away than the Star Wars franchise.

Star wars scenery snowy