Ben Child 

Remote Irish island to feature in Star Wars: Episode 7

Online speculation suggests the World Heritage Site of Skellig Michael as possible spot for Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy
  
  

Skellig Michael
Confirmed location … Skellig Michael. Photograph: De Agostini/S. Vannini/Getty Photograph: De Agostini/S. Vannini/Getty

Pinewood Studios in London and the deserts of Abu Dhabi are so far the only confirmed locations for Star Wars: Episode VII's ongoing shoot, with Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean also rumoured to have hosted film crews. Now a tiny island off the coast of Ireland, Skellig Michael, can be added to that list.

Ireland's Office of Public Works confirmed to the Kerry's Eye newspaper that the World Heritage Site will feature in the first Disney-produced Star Wars movie. "Skellig Michael is being made available for a film production shoot on the island," said a spokesperson. "This production is being fully supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Irish Film Board".

Skellig Michael, or Great Skellig, is the larger of the two Skellig islands in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of County Kerry on the sparsely populated south-west coast of Ireland. It is currently unpopulated, though a Christian monastery was founded some time between the sixth and eighth centuries before being abandoned in the late 12th century. The remains of the monastery and most of the island were designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1996.

Star Wars bloggers speculated that the island might make the perfect hideaway for an ageing Jedi knight. "We may be overreaching, but we suspect Skellig Michael may be the place where Luke Skywalker will hold the new Jedi Academy," suggested Blastr. "After all, what better place to film the future of the Jedi Order than a monastery?"

Mark Hamill, who will return as Skywalker in Episode VII, showed off a "contractually obligated" beard worthy of Obi-Wan Kenobi himself on Thursday night on the red carpet for comic-book space opera Guardians of the Galaxy in London. He told the BBC the new film was a "gift", adding: "It was certainly unexpected. I already had a beginning, middle and end. I never thought we'd come back. To go on to those sets that evoked so many memories. It is just astonishing."

Hamill said Harrison Ford was recovering well after breaking his leg on set in June. "I was not on set," he said. "It was really terrible, but I hear he's doing really well. It will take more than that to stop Harrison Ford."

Star Wars: Episode VII is due to hit cinemas in December 2015.

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