Are These The First Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Plot Details?

Are These The First Leaked Star Wars Episode VII Plot Details?


This would count as a pretty big leak if it turns out to be true. Buried deep in a Reuters report about Star Wars and Guatemala is a possible leaked plot detail involving the location and Episode VII. Possible spoilers ahead.

Here’s the paragraph in question:

Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi Knight academy. However, fans said that Disney will likely film those scenes in a studio rather than return to Tikal.

Emphasis added.

Now, there are a few reasons to doubt this information, since Disney has confirmed nothing about the forthcoming stories since acquiring the Lucasfilm properties from George Lucas at the end of October. And also why would fans have an inside track on where a forthcoming Star Wars movie may or may not be filming? For reference, Episode I was filmed in locations like Tunisia and Italy, so Guatemala doesn’t seem that far-fetched.

So where did the story details come from? Well, it could be leaked or off the record information that Reuters didn’t realise was not available to the public yet. That would be a very big deal. It seems more likely though that it’s simply been confused with the “expanded” Star Wars universe. The Guardian explains how this might have happened:

Reuters may have confused the storyline for Episode VII with Yavin 4’s involvement in the “expanded” Star Wars universe as depicted in dozens of books released in the wake of the original trilogy that hit cinemas between 1977 and 1983. Here, Yavin 4 is indeed the location for a Jedi school, but there has been no suggestion from Disney that the new films will follow the direction of the novels, which Lucas himself never entirely accepted as canonical.

Sure enough, there it is. Here’s an excerpt from the Star Wars Wikia entry about the Jedi training centre:

In 11 ABY, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker chose Yavin 4 as the site for the Jedi Praxeum and the headquarters of his New Jedi Order after receiving permission from the New Republic. During his travels, he had discovered a number of Force-sensitives and finally felt ready to begin to train new Jedi. This first class consisted of twelve pupils with Luke as their teacher. Some of those twelve were Kam and Tionne Solusar, Kirana Ti, Madurrin, Kyle Katarn, Dorsk 81, Brakiss, Corran Horn, Streen, and Gantoris. Other Jedi to join soon after were Kyp Durron, Cilghal, Mara Jade, and Dal Konur.

The plot sounds pretty cool, but it sounds odd that Disney would go down a previously written path, especially considering how successful (and good) the Avengers movie was with its original screenplay and plot. [Reuters]