Where was Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope filmed?

1977 film directed by George Lucas

Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) was filmed in Tikal — 1 recorded filming location in Guatemala. It is a filming-location statement on Wikidata, not a guess.

Part of the Star Wars film series · the Star Wars original trilogy

See them on the map → Wikipedia Source data

Filming locations

• 

  Landmarks & buildings

  Tikal

  Guatemala

  ruins of major ancient Maya city

Also per Wikipedia's article

The article names 19 more places. A sentence in an article is weaker evidence than a Wikidata statement, so these are listed apart, never mixed into the statement list, and the claim links straight to where it came from.

Places whose own article says it was shot there

3 places whose own Wikipedia article names this film as something shot there, where Wikidata records nothing and this film’s own article does not say so either. The weakest evidence on this atlas: no pin on the map, and nothing in the downloads. Each sentence is quoted whole and linked to the article it came from, so it can be judged rather than taken on trust.

• Borehamwood United Kingdom

  “Many films were shot at the studios on Shenley Road including The Dam Busters (1955), Star Wars (1977, and subsequent films in the franchise), Moby Dick (1956), Summer Holiday (1963), and The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson, some of the Indiana Jones films.” Wikipedia

• Tikal Guatemala

  “Filmmaker George Lucas used Tikal as a filming location for the fictional moon Yavin 4 in the first Star Wars film, which premiered in 1977.” Wikipedia

• Marine World/Africa USA United States

  “One of the park's star attractions was that it was home to Mardji, a trained Asian elephant that portrayed the Banthas in the original Star Wars film and that was also filmed for reference movement of the AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back.” Wikipedia

Recorded only at country level

Wikidata also records this film as shot in Arizona, California, Tunisia, without saying where. Those statements are true but unmappable — a pin in the middle of a country would claim something nobody wrote — so they are listed here instead of guessed at.

Also shot in these places

• Doctor Who 1963–
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 2010
• Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 2011
• Lawrence of Arabia 1962
• The King's Speech 2010
• Skyfall 2012
• Sherlock 2010–2017
• Gravity 2013

Set in the same places

• Assassin's Creed III 2012
• Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 1999
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception 2011
• Mass Effect 3 2012
• Need for Speed: Shift 2009
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate 2015
• Tomb Raider III 1998
• Rise of the Tomb Raider 2015
• Resistance: Fall of Man 2006
• Watch Dogs: Legion 2020
• Steamboy 2004

More filmed in Guatemala

• The Border 1982

Every filming location in Guatemala →

Frequently asked questions