2) Darth Vader Is Alive
Again, we come back to that question of villain overkill – and also the question of why?
Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker had his six-movie arc completed by Return of the Jedi – why bring him back as the bad guy again, other than for the sake of audience nostalgia? You have to imagine that Abrams and his team are only too careful not to indulge in too much of that following the ill-advisedly fan-baiting prequels.
We see in the trailer for The Force Awakens that Kylo Ren almost worships Vader’s scorched helmet. The film’s central theme is quite clearly one of legacy, and The Force Awakens is positioning Kylo Ren as the successor to Vader. The mantle has been passed onto another, younger dark force user.
There’s no reason to believe at this point that Abrams will blindside us and bring Vader back in a twist, unless he wants to make things awkward for audiences that are already trying to invest in a multitude of new villains.