‘Kensington SW7’ (‘Star Wars: Episode VII’) Preparing for Physical Production

The new Star Wars movie doesn’t have a subtitle yet. The script reportedly isn’t completed. It doesn’t even (so far as we know) have any cast members aside from the all-but-confirmed returns of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, though there are basic physical descriptions for the main cast floating around. There are even questions, though the rumors are unconfirmed, about director J.J. Abrams’s commitment to the project. But in spite of all that, production is still planned for early 2014, and we’re beginning to see proof that it’s not just talk.

We’re hearing that movie camera giant Panavision has begun to set aside an equipment order for Episode VII, which is apparently going under the code name “Kensington SW7.” Like all the Star Wars movies before it, non-location principal photography on Episode VII will take place in the UK; this could be where the first part of the code name is drawn from, as Kensington is district of west-central London. Elstree Studios, the sound stage where production will take place, is on the northern edge of London.

Episode VII wouldn’t be the first Star Wars film with a code name. Return of the Jedi was rather famously called Blue Harvest to help keep down production costs, and in an age before mass internet it basically worked until the film’s stars showed up. Some of the earliest scenes shot were of Endor, and were filmed in northern California’s redwood forests, all of which fit with Blue Harvest‘s purported rural horror premise.