No, Star Wars Episode VIII is Not Filming in Tennessee

Recently The Clancy Report published a short article claiming that Star Wars Episode VIII director Rian Johnson ‘personally chose’ Franklin, Tennessee as a film location for the movie – but sorry, Tennessee Star Wars fans: this is absolutely false.

The Tennessean has already confirmed that The Clancy Report, which bills itself as a “fantasy news website”, is nothing more than satire. Personally, as a resident of South Carolina who doesn’t live far from Tennessee, I don’t find this false report regarding Star Wars Episode VIII is so much satire as it is a somewhat cruel tease aimed at Star Wars fans who live in the southeast United States.

In fact, there are a lot of TV shows and movies that are filmed in this area (namely North Carolina and Georgia) – The Hunger Games films, Captain America: Civil War, AMC’s The Walking Dead, and soon, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (which will actually be filmed at the new Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, just as The Force Awakens was filmed at Pinewood Studios in London). So it’s not completely unbelievable that other franchises would follow the lead of those who came before. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with Star Wars Episode VIII.

Silly rumor sites like this have existed for quite some time – for instance, I have several friends who have posted links on Facebook that claim The Walking Dead will be filming in Ohio – but as popular as that TV show is, I think we can all agree that it’s nothing compared to starting a similar rumor regarding Star Wars. STAR WARS! Obviously the hive mind is part of the problem; I know I would love to believe that they were going to film parts of Episode VIII so close to where I live. But The Clancy Report is barely treading water by starting a false rumor of this magnitude under the guise of satire.

How do you feel about a ‘satirical’ and ‘pure fantasy’ website like this starting such a rumor about Star Wars Episode VIII? Let us know in the comments!

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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