Iceland is a popular shooting location for major films.  It's played host to Batman Begins, Prometheus, Thor: The Dark World, and many more.  Now it could be a location for Star Wars: Episode VII.  According Icelandic site visir.is [via Metro News], "the crew will be heading for the Scandinavian nation this spring ahead of the main production kicking off in May."  The site also notes that this filming will mostly be landscape shots, and presumably they'll be recreated on set with green screen and set design.

Given Iceland's terrain, there's some speculation that it could stand-in for the ice planet Hoth, but that's firmly a rumor at this point.  Hit the jump for a brief recap of what we know about the movie thus far.  Star Wars: Episode VII opens in regular theaters and in IMAX on December 18, 2015.

Last week, we reported that Episode VII will take place 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, which works out nicely considering that it's been 31 years since that movie came out, and the new installment will likely feature Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) along with "a trio of new young leads".  As far as other casting goes, Adam Driver (Girls) is in talks to play a villain, but every other role is up in the air, although with a May start date, we should expect a deluge of casting news soon.

With the likelihood of Luke, Leia, and Han Solo being major characters, and now Hoth possibly on the table, do you think that they're hewing too closely to the original trilogy?