Jakku = Tatooine

I am decidedly in the Jakku = Jakku camp, but I still find the similarities between Jakku and Tatooine, such as the moisture vaporator, striking.

I was therefore wondering: Could it be that in earlier drafts the first part of TFA took place on Tatooine. Later JJ and Kasdan decided that it would be better (for whatever reason) that the story would take place on a different planet, but Drew Struzan's D23 poster, which is not an official poster, might be based on those earlier drafts.

 

Try... Just try to jump for a couple of minutes to the Jakku=Tatooine camp... All similitudes with the planet, including the introduction of a new Skywalker in a desert planet. The three trilogies begin in the same way, why would you give one single element to say it's a new planet (the name) being everything else (including Rey's outfit) copy-pasted. Historical references: the force awakens picking references from european middle age, and middle age started in Europe after the big battle of Constantinopla (European border=Outer Rim), which was renamed Istanbul...

If what you say was true, I would feel pretty pessimistic about how things are going on, and would be terrified about this movie. In the other side I find it difficult as the poster uses the cast and their final outfits for the movie, so I think at the stage this poster was done the script was finished (at least regarding a major fact like this one).

 

All of a slave appearance IMO.

 

I will say it again, its a new planet so they can do their own things with the planet. So fanboys cant whine about how different it is

 

Interesting point Perrymoon. Im firmly in the "Jakuu is Jakuu so just let it go" camp, but are you saying that Tatoonie could have been renamed after the war, like Constantinople/Istanbul depending on whoever won the battle? To the victor the spoils.

 

Another point that has been brought up several times is: Why create a Tatooine clone (desert planet, moisture vaporators, Junk collectors, sparse rural civilization, Hero grows up there) when there is a perfectly good Tatooine right over there? And if its about JJ wanting to do his own thing...why use a Tatooine clone at all? Why do exactly what George has already done a bunch of times? Why not use a jungle or a "western" type planet. Or an urban type planet. Or a more post-apocalyptic type planet. If it's just because he wanted Tatooine but wants to be able to do stuff to it, like blow it up or something...Just have some guts and blow up Tatooine. He had no problem blowing up Reboot-Vulcan. It just doesn't make enough sense for me right now. Hopefully it will make more sense on opening day.

 

Probably because it was Tatooine in the script at one point until the decision was made to change it. It's been reported a number of times that pre-production was well under way while the script was still being completed. My guess is that they made a late-stage decision not to revisit Tatooine, but they didn't want to throw out everything that they had prepared to the that point. And since there's no reason there can't be many desert planets in the galaxy (and as others have pointed out it makes a nice allusion to the original film to have Rey come from a desert world) they just removed all the Tatooine specific elements and created a few Jakku specific elements to take their place.

 

I'm sorry I can't agree. Removing all Tatooine specific elements? Moisture Vaporators, sand houses, scavengers, extras dressing like those from Moss Espa in Episode I and apparently twin suns (which are added in post-production so they could perfectly avoid them).

Besides, in a movie where all marketing is focused on the echoes to the original trilogy, why would they do a last minute decision like "oh maybe using Tatooine again is too much. Let's change its name and make it a new planet.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 18, 2015, Original Post Date: Aug 18, 2015 ---

Yes. It's the most remarkable example as it fits with the context the movie seems to evoque (end of the Roman Empire and beginning of the Middle Ages), but they're many in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_city_name_changes

And just saying: Istanbul was already an inspiration for Tatooine in Return of the Jedi.

 

So the idea that there's a complicated plan, spread across all connected media, to hide the identity of a planet for absolutely no logical reason from the tiny segment of the audience that would even care - that makes perfect sense to you. But a setting change late in production is unreasonable?

There's nothing specific to Tatooine about any of those things you mentioned. Most of the population we saw on Tatooine in the previous movies were not indigenous - certainly not around the spaceport. Offworlders would probably dress similarly to go to any desert planet. And as many have pointed out, we haven't seen any aliens species that were commonplace on Tatooine - and I don't mean just the natives like Jawas and Tuskins. Desert dwellings would likely be made from similar materials, since sand is the one common element, but even so most of the Jakku buildings look more like they were assembled from scavenged wreckage. There's nothing about moisture vaporators that would be exclusive to one place.

And the two suns on the poster argument may be the silliest point in this whole argument. There's also a squadron of X-Wings in front of one of those suns. Does that convince you that there will be an air battle with a bunch of X-Wings on the desert world in the movie? Also, Han is much small than Finn and Rey. Does that mean they are giants in the film?

My theory may be wrong - I'm just speculating. But it works a lot better as an explanation than the utterly nonsensical idea that Jakku is actually Tatooine.

 

If you give space to your theory to be wrong (as I do with mine), you don't need to use words as silly and utterly nonsensical, although I understand that sometimes this debate heats a little bit. Let's try to keep it friendly, it's just a damn planet in a scifi film we all love.

My friend, if Jakku is not Tatooine, we are about to be introduced to a lazy and uninspired concept. This is Star Wars Episode VII, you don't introduce a trilogy in a new planet which is desert and has moisture vaporators. What it surprises me is that you don't even accept that. All efforts go to minusvalue those who think is Tatooine, but no-one criticizes what an uninspiring new location they have created if Jakku=Jakku is the case.

 

I tend to agree. Even if Jakku = Jakku. Jakku is still Tatooine. A destert planet with all the trappings of Tatooine, but with a different name just for the sake of being a "different" planet. If that is the case, I'm disappointed in JJ.

BUT, there is a chance there is a GOOD reason for cloning Tatooine and creating Jakku. I can't think of any...but it's possible that JJ and co. have a good reason to invent Jakku rather than use Tatooine. I wish I was watching TFA right now! I have a feeling this conversation will continue on even after the release of the movie.

 

Yes! That's the same I think. I'm 80% Jakku=Tatooine, but if it ends up being Tatooine, I'm sure there's going to be a realtionship. Maybe a Tatooine moon? Whatever, it's an outer rim planet and looks too similar, JJ will not fail on this.

 

No, lazy ijs ust re-using the same plantes over and over again.

Whati s with you pepole and the Maclunkey moisture vaporators? They probably werent even produced on tatooine in the first place...

There are Moisture Vaporators on Lothal BTW, is it tatooine?

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 18, 2015, Original Post Date: Aug 18, 2015 ---

The good reason is that in the prequels tatooine was basically re-invented inot a hutt hub woldr and crowded spaceport and not "the middle of nowhere" and opst trilogy it is now known as the homeworld of two of the most important figures in galactic history....

Rey is supposed to be on a small backwater unknown woldr, and histoyr no longer has tatooine being that...

 

No need to lecture me on etiquette. I did not insult you personally - my judgement was reserved strictly for the argument, which I find to be rather absurd, especially as it relates to "evidence" that comes from assumptions drawn from a video game trailer and a poster that spotlights supporting details but ignores everything else. A few pages back @Cole, one the Jakku=Tatooine argument's longest supporters called it "ridiculous", so please don't try make it sound like I'm launching personal attacks against you by saying the same thing.

As for your opinion that Jakku is representative of laziness on the part of the filmmakers, I haven't said anything at all about whether I accept that. As far as I'm concerned it's a completely different argument - and a totally justifiable position to take. Personally, I don't know if I agree with you yet or not. There's plenty of evidence that Jakku is not the same planet as Tatooine. But I haven't seen enough to know how similar they are aside from the fact that they are both desert worlds.

If Jakku turns out to be completely lifeless aside from the scavengers that have come to pilfer the ruins of the big battle, and it has a totally different vibe, one more akin to the lawless wild west, with its own unique culture - then I probably won't have any problem with it. If it turns out to be just like Tatooine with no Jawas, then I'll probably agree with you.

But I can tell you I won't be making any judgements based on the fact the they both have moisture vaporators. I would expect any inhabited desert world in the Star Wars Universe to have those. It would actually be illogical for Jakku not to have them.

 

Well, it's not only about moisture vaporators, I think they're numerous arguments on the board. You can find them interesting or stupid, but you know that this 29 pages of comments have had something else than what you say ;-)

 

Hey guys, what's say we cool down a bit? We can disagree without tossing around insults and negative ratings.

I think the idea here is more poetic than it is practical: Jakku is similar to Tatooine but is still distinct in the same way that this movie will be similar to the OT but still very distinct. It also might play into the idea that Rey isn't actually related to the Skywalkers; if she's just a spiritual successor to the lineage, it would make perfect sense for her to come from a planet that is not Tatooine.

JJ's not dumb, and he's not lacking in guts. (He also didn't write the script that called for imploding Vulcan, but that's been covered many times before.) Jakku is Jakku because there is a reason for it to not be Tatooine. Maybe they're saving Tatooine for something later in the story of the ST? Maybe something happens to Jakku? Maybe, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, Tatooine is actually too much of a central hub for the story to unfold there like the envisioned. Take into consideration that there are thousands of planets in the GFFA; why is it so impossible that two of them happen to be desert environments? Also, keep in mind that even here on Earth no two deserts are the same; we've seen very little of Jakku's landscape, and it could very well end up looking very distinct from that of Tatooine.

I think it's pretty early to be calling anything "lazy" or "uninspired." Have you considered the fact that although this is the "continuation" of the saga, it's also a soft-reboot and the start of a new story? That Jakku might represent more than just "not-Tatooine", and that technology to survive in a desert environment would be relatively the same across the galaxy?

You know, I see everyone referring to Jakku as "the new desert planet." Why haven't we taken to calling it "the junkyard planet"?

 

As I stated I believe them to be separate planets, but I could accept that different societies use different names for the same planet (Earth, Gaia, etc) if they wanted to pull off the big fooled you moment. But what purpose would calling it Jakku serve in the first place? Just to fool fans? There would need to be a reason for the subterfuge. That said, there is simply more credible information supporting it being a new planet.

Take the newly released toys for instance. Finn's 'action figure' says 'Finn (Jakku)' directly on the packaging (bottom left) it comes in.

 

I don't want to go back and read 28 pages, but has anyone here posited that this is like a crusades situation? Jakku/Tatooine is the Holy Land and depending on whose side of the conflict you fall upon the name of the planet changes.

I mean it was the birthplace of the Chosen One. Sounds eerily familiar to me...

 

Who's voting your last comment and mine as pessimistic? Is that pessimistic to believe there can be a good reason to create a similar planet to Tatooine?

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 19, 2015, Original Post Date: Aug 19, 2015 ---

Very interesting analogy, I think you're the first one mentioning the crusades. In fact, you have two options regarding "the desert planet in the force awakens":

- Abrams / Kasdan: "Let's take Tatooine, which is so important to the saga, and give it some new mindblowing history so that we get something fresh". Right after they open history books and get inspired by real history (Like Star Wars has always done).

or:

- Abrams / Kasdan: "Let's not use Tatooine anymore, it's too repetitive, they're other locations in the galaxy! let's just create a new desert planet which will give us the western feeling of Star Wars. Let's put it in the outer rim and put some moisture vaporators in it so that it feels Star Wars and it worth the introduction of the new Skywalker. Let's put some crashed spaceships so that we can directly difference it from Tatooine."

Star Wars films has always played very well the balance between classic and new, and in terms of locations they have never introduced (IN A SAGA FILM) a new planet looking similar to any other. Endor forest doesn't look like Naboo swamp, geonosis desert doesn't look like Tatooine, and so on.

 

Or

- Abrams/Kasdan: "We're writing in a galaxy which has thousands of planets, any number of which could have a desert-like environment. We can't use Tatooine because it's been made out to be far more of a central hub that in originally was, so let's make a new planet that is similar and can serve the purpose that Tatooine originally did. At the same time, this new planet can represent the similarities to the old story but that we're in an entirely new era now; just for good measure, let's write a backstory that includes a large number of ships crashing on this planet during a climactic battle, so we can drive home the fact that it's all symbolic of making a new story from the old."