Take A Video Tour Of Jakku, The New Planet From 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

As you probably know by now, Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes us to new corners of a galaxy far far away. Most of the trailers and marketing focus on the first thirty minutes of the film (they haven't spoiled much) which is set on Rey's (Daisy Ridley) home desert planet of Jakku.

We know very little about this new planet, but the video game Star Wars Battlefront recently released a new downloadable level set during the Battle of Jakku, which took placer shortly after the events of the Battle of Endor in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, many years before the setting of the new film (explaining why there are wreckages of Star Destroyers laying in the sand dunes). Mike Fahley recorded a ten minute long virtual tour of Jakku, taking you through the world presented in the prequel video game DLC.

You can watch this video with no fear of movie spoilers as the Battle of Jakku seems to have little connection to Episode 7 aside from the giant relics laying in the sand at the start of the movie. I'm not a video gamer, so it was fun to watch someone  explore this new planet in-game. Watch the Jakku video tour now embedded after the jump.

Jakku Video Tour From Star Wars Battlefront

Here is the Jakku video tour from Mike Fahley of Kotaku:

As the site notes, the new Star Wars Battlefront DLC includes two maps:

  • "Graveyard of Giants is the huge battlefield made for the game's larger modes. That's where you'll see the downed Star Destroyer, though the map boundaries keep it forever out of reach. It looks lovely, especially from the sky in Fighter Squadron mode."
  • "The second map, built for more intimate skirmishes, is the Goazan Badlands. It's all canyons and caves, much like we've seen in other Battlefront planets, only with more junk."
  • Almost completely unrelated but Google Cardboard has teamed up with Verizon and Lucasfilm to release a Jakku Spy virtual reality experience now on the official Star Wars app.

    Developed by Lucasfilm's ILMxLAB studio in conjunction with Google and Verizon, Jakku Spy thrusts you into the role of a Resistance secret agent on Jakku (the desert world from Star Wars: The Force Awakens), envelopes you in stunning virtual reality, and unfolds in a series of story-driven installments. It all leads into Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and there's never been Star Wars storytelling quite like it. ... A Jakku Spy experience goes something like this: Up in the distance is wreckage from a starship; turn around and there's a speeder blazing past, engines roaring; turn back around and a certain soccer-ball-looking droid is quickly approaching, bleeping and blooping to get your attention. Jakku and Star Wars, visually and aurally, are all around you. It's truly a completely new way of seeing.

    Verizon has also released a series of Star Wars: The Force Awakens viewers to let you play this VR experience on your smartphone. The four limited-edition viewers include BB-8, Kylo Ren, First Order stormtrooper, and R2-D2, available exclusively at Verizon stores.

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