The untitled Han Solo movie, second in the Star Wars Story anthology series that kicked off with Rogue One, will soon film on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, an African archipelago held by Spain. Thanks to local news site Canarias7 and Spanish-language Star Wars fan site La Fosa del Rancor (Rancor Pit), pictures leaked from the set construction have now appeared online. Along with the long-distance snaps, other pre-production leaks give us a decent sense of one of the desert Star Wars locations to be unveiled when the Han Solo Star Wars Story comes out in theaters May 25, 2018.
The two leaked set photos, rerun at Star Wars News Net, reveal a desert location not unlike Tatooine. In one photo there looks to be a town of some sort under construction. Another photo shows construction vehicles piled up around a lake, or possibly an ocean. Either way, it’s a desert landscape somewhere in between sandy dunes and salt flat, in keeping with the Western aesthetic described by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
“This moves closer to a heist or Western type feel,” Kennedy told Variety back in November. “We’ve talked about [Frederic] Remington and those primary colors that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film.”
READ: Han Solo Movie Filming In Spaghetti Western Location In Pursuit Of Remington Cowboy Aesthetic
While the actual photos may not have all that much to reveal, a local casting call and set design contracts flesh out what’s being erected on the location. The set will be populated by over 250 people, specifically, as SWNN describes it, men, women and children of “dark complexion.” To house the populace, Disney is hunting down literal tons of salt, out of which they’ll build the houses. It sounds like if a town sprung up in Death Valley, constructed from blocks of local salt.
While the descriptions suggest the Han Solo movie might return to Tatooine (again), the Star Wars galaxy isn’t exactly short on desert locations. Between Jedha, Wobani and Jakku, there are plenty of options for desert environments.
The set photos and casting news aren’t the only recent leaks from the production of the Han Solo movie. Making Star Wars, citing anonymous sources, uncovered two new character names: Val and Mother Proxima. It’s unclear who will play these characters: Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton or Phoebe Waller-Bridge are all possibilities.
Really, all we know for certain about the the Han Solo Star Wars Story is that Alden Ehrenreich plays Han Solo, Donald Glover Lando Calrissian, Joonas Suotamo Chewbacca and Woody Harrelson will appear as a Han Solo’s mentor, Beckett. More details will probably have to wait until after the Star Wars: The Last Jedi marketing blitz is complete.
