Some of the world’s biggest movie franchises have filmed key scenes in the British countryside. Use the Force and find them…
The spiritual home of Star Wars is London, as each of the films and TV series have mainly been shot in London studios: the original trilogy at Elstree, the prequels at Leavesden, Elstree and Ealing, and everything since 2012 at Pinewood. And although the saga is famous for its exotic and distant locations – the Tunisian desert, the glaciers of north Norway, the Italian great lakes and the Redwood forests of California to name but a few – a vast amount of their external shoots have taken place on our shores, too.
In 2015, the Lake District starred as the planet Takodana in The Force Awakens, including a major battle scene filmed over Derwent Water and Thirlmere. Maz Kanata’s castle sits right in the Jaws of Borrowdale.
Arriving over the fells in the Millennium Falcon, heroine Rey declares “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy”, which is a sentiment we can all agree with. (The establishing shot merges Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite into one giant lake with CGI, but we can forgive that.) Puzzlewood, the woodland attraction in the Forest of Dean, is used as a forest on Takodana, where Rey meets Kylo Ren. The 2022 series Andor was filmed widely across the Highlands, including several episodes in which the Cruachan Dam near Oban doubles as the Imperial Garrison on Aldhani. In the same series, Cleveleys seafront becomes the tourist haven of Niamos in Episode 7, which prompted Lancashire County Councillor Peter Buckley to declare “the Force is strong with Lancashire”.
Most recently, the 2023 series Ahsoka took us back to the Highlands, as the second half of the series takes place on the remote, mythical and mountainous planet of Peridea. The landscapes of the Assynt take centre stage, with Stac Pollaidh, Quinag and Suilven all clearly visible – the latter having a fortress and landing pad added by CGI.
The heftiest big-screen juggernaut of our time has spent plenty of time in Britain. In Thor: The Dark World (2012) you’ll see a lot of London’s South Bank and the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, as well as 30 St Mary Axe (better known as the Gherkin), while in 2013’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Dover Castle was a secret HYDRA base. The entire final act of Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) takes place on Tower Bridge.
But the most significant uses of UK scenery come in the two-part saga of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). In the former, an early battle in Edinburgh stretches from the Royal Mile across to
