Chewbacca, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker on their way to the Great Pit of Carkoon Instead of going back to Tunisia, the filmmakers opted for the sand dunes surrounding Yuma to shoot Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. The filming of the Great Pit of Carkoon scene, which takes place on the Dune Sea, was done in Buttercup Valley, California. Although the actual filming occurred in April 1982, the set construction had been ongoing for the five months prior. The production team stayed in Yuma, Arizona, the closest town, during the shoot, accumulating more than 5,500 man-days in hotel rooms for both set construction and the filming itself.
For the Special Edition of A New Hope, the crew revisited the Imperial Sand Dunes to film additional footage of stormtroopers in search of any sign of R2-D2 after his escape pod crashed.