8 Of The Craziest Star Wars: The Force Awakens Fan Theories

Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens the most anticipated movie of all-time? Its massive pre-sales certainly suggest that's the case. Already the film is breaking ticket pre-sale records, making over $50 million in advanced bookings before it has even hit cinemas. On the other hand, culturally, the impact of The Force Awakens is totally immeasurable, but the sheer volume of internet chatter alone is a testament to how excited people are for this movie. Take the many, many deeply knowledgeable fans talking at once about all the possibilities of Episode VII, and combine it with the film's typically tantalizing J.J. Abrams ad campaign, feeding fans information piecemeal, and what you get is hundreds upon hundreds of unconfirmed theories about the various components that make up The Force Awakens. Some of these theories have been rumored for a while (farewell, Han?), some are relatively new but still believable (you too, Chewbacca?), and others are more uncertain. Regardless, there have been some absolutely wild theories regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens that have sprung up in recent months, and here, we explore 8 of the craziest. 8) Finn Is Lando Calrissian's Son The outrage over John Boyega's casting as a stormtrooper, and the attempted boycott of the latest Star Wars movie as a result of a black actor taking the lead - yeah, that was straight-up racism. The fan theory that Lando Calrissian is secretly Finn's father? Well, that's not much better, considering it arose apropos of nothing more than the two characters sharing the same skin color. What evidence do we have that this isn't remotely true? When producers were casting for Finn, the character was simply written as a young male. This was evidenced in the fact that white actors Jesse Plemons and Ed Speelers were also being considered along with the black Boyega, before casting directors went with the latter. Finn was written as non-race-specific, so the idea that he's Lando's son just because they're two people who happen to be black should be dismissed immediately. 7) Kylo Ren Is Luke Skywalker We're surely all pretty confident by now that the man behind the mask of Kylo Ren is not Luke Skywalker, but just in case there are some who still need convincing, here are the facts..... Kylo Ren is definitely played by Adam Driver, because, even with his voice-distorting mask, Kylo sounds like Driver and is visibly of a similar height (and larger than the relatively short Mark Hamill). What's more, Vanity Fair published a picture of Kylo Ren without his mask on months ago, and the guy underneath was objectively Adam Driver. Even if we didn't have these things to go on, you would have to at some point ask why J.J. Abrams would hire Driver - one of the more in-demand actors of his generation - just as a kind of prank to distract fans from the fact that Mark Hamill is really playing the part. Also, Abrams has himself confirmed that it's Driver, not Hamill, playing Kylo Ren, saying in a recent interview that it was a "great joy to work with Adam Driver on this role." Sounds pretty definitive to us. 6) Jar Jar Binks Is Supreme Leader Snoke Similar to the 'Kylo Ren is Mark Hamill' theory - why hire someone of the caliber of Andy Serkis to play Snoke just to disguise the fact that you have another actor for the job? Retroactively improving the prequels and the Jar Jar Binks character in a single, scarily convincing thread, Reddit user Lumpawarroo proposed that Binks was all along secretly a Sith lord who would reveal himself in The Force Awakens as the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke. Lumpawarroo has suggested that Binks' suspicious behavior, exhibiting what appeared to be force powers like mind control and immense physical strength, meant he was the real mastermind behind the rise of the Empire, with Darth Sidious as his mere puppet. So, could he still be the puppetmaster by the time of The Force Awakens? Could he be Snoke, whom we've still yet to see? It can't be true of course - it would require more balls than all the execs at Disney have combined to see this plot twist through - but it is a fascinating take on the prequels all the same. 5) General Hux Is Luke's Son Attempting To Destroy The First Order From Within The rumor that Domhnall Gleeson's First Order commander General Hux is secretly Luke Skywalker's son was apparently borne of two things. First is that Gleeson bears a passing resemblance to a young Mark Hamill. Second is a leaked synopsis - featuring Hux's First Order infiltration as a plot point - that has long since been debunked. These are very weak bases for such a wild theory, made weaker by the fact that Gleeson has spoken of Hux's power-hungry character, calling him "messed up" and "ruthless." It makes no sense that someone trying to bring down the First Order from the inside would be a merciless killer that at the same time is strengthening the organization. Besides, at this point it looks more likely that another prominent First Order leader is the real secret Skywalker - to have two just seems like over-egging it. 4) Max Von Sydow Is Secretly Playing An Aged Boba Fett First of all, we should probably acknowledge the fact that Boba Fett (and all his cloned brothers) looks and sounds like Temuera Morrison: Muscular, 5ft 6in, man of Maori descent Temuera Morrison. Unless in the Star Wars universe the process of ageing can turn you from a dark-skinned, short and stocky New Zealander into Max von Sydow, a reedy man of 6ft 4in and with a Scandinavian accent, this one's looking unlikely. We also now have the report that veteran Swede von Sydow is playing Lor San Tekka, a Jakku native who helps Poe Dameron on his quest. This doesn't exactly sound like the action of the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. Besides, can J.J. Abrams really risk running the Boba Fett character into the ground any further after the prequels robbed Boba of all his mystery? Fans have to accept that at least some of the characters in The Force Awakens will be new, and not all simply rehashed from trilogies of old. 3) Luke Skywalker Has Turned To The Dark Side And Become Sith We know Luke Skywalker has become something of a myth in the Star Wars universe by the time we reach The Force Awakens. And not just that, but something of a boogeyman to the First Order, who have positioned Skywalker as an enemy of their own, skewing his good deeds via propaganda. We know this because Abrams revealed it himself in interview with Entertainment Weekly. Hard to imagine the First Order would go to such trouble if Luke was on their side, right? There are other reasons to believe Luke is still on the side of the light as well. For one, adding Luke to the bad guy mix would be villain overkill. There's already Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke, General Hux and Captain Phasma, along with Constable Zuvio and the mysterious character that betrays Rey and co. on Maz Kanata's planet. There's also the fact that Luke Skywalker's test of Sith-dom came at the end of Return of the Jedi - and he passed. For Abrams to have turned Luke from a pure, proven Jedi into Sith in between films would be far too bold a move. 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. 1) Luke Has Died And Become A Force Ghost Because there's such mystery surrounding Luke Skywalker in the film, the rumor mill has gone into overdrive regarding the state of the character in Episode VII. A couple of already mentioned factors come into play here, though. Firstly, it would be odd and nonsensical for Abrams to have killed the character off in between films, and secondly, it would seem a waste to bring Mark Hamill back into the fold having not given him a respectful (for him and the fans) send-off. There's also what we have as known facts regarding the shooting of Episodes VII and VIII: that both productions shot at the new home of Skywalker on Ireland's Skellig Michael. Giving Luke Skywalker a physical home that the new trilogy's heroes have to actively travel to in order to contact him means he is most likely not a force ghost; those can appear anywhere and at any time, after all. Also, giving Skywalker a physical location to hide out in means the character has to still be made of physical matter, right?