Back in the foolish naiveté of 2014, when we truly had no idea what to expect from the then-upcoming seventh Star Wars movie, Disney’s Vader-like grip on spoilers was so tight that J.J. Abrams could only jokingly reference the existence of the Millennium Falcon when leaked set photos had already proved it would be in the movie. These days, though, the spoiler guardians have become so open about the Millennium Falcon that they apparently don’t care who tosses a drone over Pinewood Studios in England, snaps a few photos of the thing, and then shares them online.
That’s exactly what The Daily Mail did this weekend, posting a bunch of spy photos of the Falcon and an unknown set that’s built in what looks like a Star Wars-y parking lot (you’ll have to click that link to see the photos). There’s a grassy hill of some kind with a bunch of stairs that looks a lot like the island that Luke was hanging out on at the end of The Force Awakens (with the addition of a big, dead tree), as well as the exterior of some building and the interior of some other building (or maybe even the same building!), but it’s hard to gather any details beyond that. We don’t know what the deal with the tree is, but its close proximity to the Falcon indicates that it’s some kind of…Star Wars-related tree at the very least. Maybe it’s Groot from Guardians Of The Galaxy? (Feel free to spread that rumor around.)
Episode VIII director Rian Johnson got in on this set photo fun as well, posting an image on Twitter of a guy sitting in an X-Wing along with a caption that indicates shooting on the film is halfway done. The movie isn’t set to come out until December 15, 2017, though, so that still leaves the world plenty of time to try and get pictures of the Falcon sitting in other, possibly more exotic parking lots.
[via io9]