The rumor mill keeps churning away on J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, but if our latest news about the blockbuster turns out to be true, it appears that the notoriously secretive director’s tight ship has sprung a bit of a leak. Some new plot details have surfaced online, courtesy of Devin Faraci at Badass Digest, a typically trustworthy site about big scoops like this, teasing the opening of Star Wars: Episode VII.
If Faraci’s scoop is true, which I’d imagine is the case, the long-anticipated film certainly starts things off on a familiar note, echoing both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back with its set-up of the new trilogy. As per Faraci:
Imagine the standard Star Wars crawl, and when it ends the camera pans up to the stars. But instead of a spaceship zooming into frame we see… a hand! A severed hand, tumbling through space. A severed hand gripping a light saber.
That hand falls onto a desert planet, where it is discovered by characters who will be our heroes. One is Daisy Ridley. The other is John Boyega, who is playing someone trying to change his path in life. They recognize the light saber as a Jedi relic and decide to return it to the proper people.
Their quest takes them off world, and they meet up with Han Solo and Chewbacca, who aren’t flying around in the Millenium Falcon anymore but are piloting… well, that could be a spoiler. I’ll leave it. Anyway, Han and Chewie recognize the light saber as Luke’s, and they say they haven’t seen their friend in thirty years, since the events of Return of the Jedi.
So begins a quest to find the missing Jedi Master. Meanwhile, on an ice planet, nefarious forces are building a super weapon, one capable of destroying not planets but entire solar systems…
In many ways this plot of Episode VII is an echo of A New Hope. Instead of R2 coming to Tatooine it’s a hand falling from the sky, but the basic sweep of the story is similar, and intentionally so. But things that seem familiar may not be as familiar as you think – don’t assume that every ice or desert planet in the galaxy has already been visited, if you know what I’m saying.
Faraci noted that he kept some parts of this news deliberately vague so as to avoid major spoilers for the film. However, he added that John Boyega’s protagonist “owns this movie,” according to what he’s heard.
Tell us, what do you fans think of that plot overview? I’m certainly intrigued and excited by it, but I’m also not someone who considers myself a huge fan of this beloved franchise.
We’ll find out whether Faraci’s scoop is true (and whether Lucasfilm and Disney revisiting Star Wars at all was a good idea) when Star Wars: Episode VII opens December 18th, 2015.