May 4 is better known in the geek world as Star Wars Day – May the fourth be with you ... get it? To mark the occasion we decided to round up some of the latest news and rumours about the eagerly awaited Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which was partly filmed in Abu Dhabi and will be released on December 18.
Things had seemed fairly quiet on the news front since the excitement generated by the unveiling of the latest trailer at the Star Wars Celebration event in California a couple of weeks ago. But just as in space no one can hear you scream, on the internet, nobody ever really stops making noise, particularly when there is a new movie to be publicised.
John Boyega, who plays Finn, an apparently AWOL stormtrooper, told Entertainment Weekly that he is just as excited as the fans are about the release of the film.
"I'm going crazy because I'm a big Star Wars fan," he said. "We're all going crazy and we all can't wait for the film to come out."
No wonder he is excited – Cinema Blend suggested that he plays the central role in the film: "Boyega is the character who 'has the story arc that brings him into Star Wars's greater universe' in a narrative that 'has echoes of Luke's arc in A New Hope'." They don't really offer any solid sources for this, though.
Sticking with Boyega, Latino Review says that several different sources have said that Boyega's character isn't a Jedi or a Padawan (trainee Jedi) at the start of the movie. Could this mean that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) will take Finn under his wing, much as Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) did with Luke back in the film that started it all – Episode IV: A New Hope.
Fan site makingstarwars.net claims to have seen a series of leaked emails from the studio revealing more details about the movie and that the story will revolve around Luke Skywalker.
According to these alleged emails, Luke "is in hiding during much of" The Force Awakens. Apparently he is trying to protect an "ancient Sith tomb" from the new villain, Kylo Ren.
They add: “What lies in this tomb is an ancient Sith Lord who may turn out to be Darth Plageuis The Wise. Luke, it is revealed, has been experiencing severe mental torture while protecting this tomb by ghosts of the past, present and future and he is very unstable as we meet him.
“His power is terrifying to both himself and what it could mean for the future of the galaxy. There is talk that Kylo Ren knows how to unlock this tomb as he has self-trained himself in the ways of the Sith without the need of a master. It is not mentioned how long Luke has been watching this tomb but it is implied it has been a few years, against the better judgement of his friends. Luke isn’t crazy, so to speak, but he has felt the damaging effects this exile has had on him.”
Much is being made on the internet about the scene in the trailer in which what appears to be Luke’s original lightsaber is passed from what is assumed to be Leia (“my sister”) to an unidentified (seemingly male) character. This has led to speculation that Finn is Luke’s son, and the lightsaber is being passed from father to son, just as Luke inherited it from his own father, Anakin (who succumbed to the dark side of The Force and became Darth Vader).
There is further speculation that Rey, the character played by Star Wars newcomer Daisy Ridley, is Luke's daughter. Headlines and Global News has even gone so far as to concoct an entire storyline, in which Rey is using Jedi mind tricks to control Finn and force him to deliver the lightsaber to her. It's an interesting idea, but doesn't really explain why Leia would hand the weapon over to the first stormtrooper that came knocking on her door.
And that’s the point at this stage – it’s all just speculation, and we won’t know the real story until December.
In the meantime, if you’re at a loose end, you can easily kill hours Googling the rumours to find your own favourites.
Until December, may the fourth be with you.
cnewbould@thenational.ae