Star Wars MP: Trip to intergalactic superweapon ‘not a mistake’

The Tory representative for Tring and Berkhamsted has come under the spotlight for exposing a key part of the movie in a Tweet following his visit to movie making site Pinewood Studios.

He wrote: “Great place for a ministerial visit. The Death Star - the set of next #StarWars film at @PinewoodStudios to see benefits of film tax credits.”

The perceived faux pas means Mr Gauke has hit the headlines around the world today as Star Wars fan suggested he has revealed that the Death Star - destroyed in the previous films A New Hope and Return Of The Jdei, will be making a comeback.

However, Mr Gauke, who said the tweet was cleared by moviemakers at Lucasfilm, said: “It is actually to do with a separate film, not Episode VII, and so it is not news or unexpected. There is no big gaffe.

“It relates to the next film, it is not one of the saga films, it is a spin off film that is set in a previous time.

“It is not following chronologically from Episode VI so it is not giving anything away.”

The MP said he was not surprised by the reaction to his tweet. “A combination of Twitter and Star Wars is always going to get a bit of excitement,” he said.

“The real know-alls in the subject know it wasn’t a plot spoiler.”

Alongside the Star Wars sequel trilogy to continue the core saga, Lucasfilm is also creating a series of standalone anthology films that will tell other stories within the Star Wars universe. The first is called Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One and is due to be released in December 2016.