8 Questions That Star Wars: The Force Awakens Needs To Answer

There are a number of burning fan questions that are clearly (read: hopefully) going to be answered in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We have questions of whether Rey and Kylo Ren are of Skywalker lineage, how the dregs of the Empire became the First Order, who the Knights of Ren are, where the hell the trailer-absent Luke Skywalker fits into this new trilogy - these are all things that The Force Awakens will simply have to clear up for the audience, simply in order for the film to progress and for viewers to catch up. There are other questions, however, carried over from Return of the Jedi and brought up by the promotional materials for Episode VII that don't necessarily have to be answered in the new film. These are the little details and the more minor hanging questions that true Star Wars fans want to explore along with the core plot points. While it's unlikely that we'll get solid answers to everything we're wondering about, here are eight questions that Star Wars: The Force Awakens really should try to answer. 8) Did Boba Fett Break Out Of The Sarlacc? If it wasn't for the Boba Fett standalone movie coming up, maybe it wouldn't be quite so crucial for The Force Awakens to explain what happened to him after he was apparently devoured in Return of the Jedi. But seeing as that Boba Fett film is on its way, there needs to be some sort of closure first. Even if he doesn't appear as a character in The Force Awakens, there should be at least a hint as to whether Fett's survival in the Star Wars novels is considered canon or not. George Lucas has said that Boba Fett did indeed make it out of the Sarlacc and go on to hunt folks across the galaxy. But now J.J. Abrams is the king of this universe, and Lucas' word is no longer final. And as Max von Sydow is quite clearly not playing an older Boba Fett in The Force Awakens (the lack of physical resemblance between von Sydow and Boba/clone trooper template Temuera Morrison alone should provide a clue), we're currently still waiting on answers as to Boba's standing. 7) What Happened To Wedge Antilles? Denis Lawson's response to being asked to make an appearance in the new Star Wars trilogy was pretty definitive: no, not ever. (apparently, it would "bore" him). So, there'll be no Wedge Antilles in Episode VII or any future sequels, leaving it to the returning Nien Nunb and Admiral Ackbar to play the veterans of the Resistance. Still, it's a shame: though Wedge wasn't the most major player in the original trilogy, this is Star Wars, and the fans want to know what happened to one of the best men the Rebel Alliance ever produced. Like Lando Calrissian, Wedge was one of the great heroes for the Rebels, assisting in vital victories in both Death Star battles and playing a role in the battle of Hoth. By The Force Awakens, he should be some kind of Resistance legend. Of course, Lawson's absence means that the fate of Wedge will have to be told by another, but it should be told all the same. 6) What Happened To Lando? More important even than the fate of Wedge Antilles is that of smuggler-turned-entrepeneur Lando Calrissian, the former pirate friend to Han Solo who sold his companions out to the Empire before siding with the Rebels to bring it down once and for all. By Return of the Jedi, Lando was a major player in the Rebellion, even leading the charge on the second Death Star. And yet...he's apparently nowhere to be seen in The Force Awakens. It's not like producers are just hiding Billy Dee Williams in the cast list, keeping him as a cameo surprise. Force Awakens writer Lawrence Kasdan has definitively said that "there's no Lando Calrissian in this movie." It does seem odd though that Williams hasn't been asked back yet - Lando is a fan favorite for being the first actor of color in the entire Star Wars series, and audiences deserve to know what happened. 5) How Did The Force Become Myth? With Luke Skywalker and his ways of the light defeating the Sith order in Return of the Jedi, it seemed as though the Jedi and the force itself might be heading for a resurgence. But look at the trailers - Han Solo talking of the force and the Jedi as though it's all just passed into legend in the space of a mere few decades. Luke Skywalker must have become some kind of lauded figure after destroying the Empire in Jedi, so how could the ways of the force be simply lost in the ether? How has it become nothing more than a myth that's passed on through the generations. More importantly, why would the Rebel Alliance - now the Resistance - allow the force and Skywalker to become just a story? Why not use the force as a way of reinvigorating the all-powerful Jedi council? If Abrams is to answer this question, he'll have to do it convincingly - having the force become myth seems odd when the Rebels could have instead used it to their advantage post-Jedi. 4) If The Force Became Myth Then How Did Kylo Ren Learn How To Use It? If what we suspect is true, and the whole concept of the force has been lost to time by the period depicted in The Force Awakens, then how come Kylo Ren knows how to use it? It's not just a case of having to actually be aware of the force in order to learn it in the first place. Someone would have had to teach Kylo the ways of the force, but that raises a ton of questions, considering the only living proponent of it - Luke Skywalker - is an enemy of the First Order. The first Episode VII teaser, narrated by Andy Serkis' Supreme Leader Snoke, suggests Snoke is force sensitive himself, meaning he could have been the master to Kylo Ren's padawan. But then again, we know that Kylo isn't even Sith, but a member of the Knights of Ren, a scrappy group that mostly carries traditional weapons like blasters, whereas Kylo is the only one holding a lightsaber. It begs the question, who was even around to teach him how to make one of those? 3) Vader Turned On The Empire, So Why Is He Now Worshiped By Kylo Ren? At first glance, it doesn't seem so odd that new villain Kylo Ren would idolize Darth Vader, formerly the baddest bastard in the universe. But remember that Darth Vader turned on the Empire, and threw the Emperor into the bowels of the second Death Star in order to finish him off. Then the Rebels burned Vader's body on a funeral pyre, as if he was no longer their enemy, but a vanquished ally deserving of a hero's farewell. Seems odd that Kylo Ren would be full of admiration for someone who turned on his own cause, doesn't it? There's the possibility that First Order propaganda is such that it has used the story of Darth Vader as an inspiring incentive for its troops to fight, leaving his treacherous ways at the end out of the history books. But if Kylo is to get a hold of Vader's melted helmet as seen in the trailers, then he would have had to be aware in the first place that the Rebel Alliance burned Vader's remains and claimed him as a folk hero of their own. 2) What Happened To Endor? Interestingly, what we know about The Force Awakens so far suggests that it will take a realistic (well, as realistic as you can get for Star Wars) approach to a post-war galaxy. Return of the Jedi presented the destruction of the second Death Star and the death of the Emperor as the ultimate victory, but Episode VII will apparently take a more sobering look at what the aftermath of such a conflict might really be like. Of course, a force so big wouldn't just lay its arms down there and then; of course, there would be debris of war left all over the galaxy. Jakku for one is evidently a planet scarred by battle - maybe, just maybe, Episode VII will address the so-called 'Endor Holocaust' proposal, the enduring theory that Endor was devastated after the giant Death Star blew up right next to it. Actual scientists, like theoretical astrophysicist Curtis Saxton, have actually been consulted about the likelihood of an 'Endor Holocaust' - so perhaps The Force Awakens will address it. 1) What Is The Status Of Coruscant? In the prequels, Coruscant plays a major role as the kind of 'capital city' of the galaxy and the home of the Jedi council. It's where the galactic senate resides before Chancellor Palpatine becomes Emperor Palpatine, turning Coruscant into a kind of HQ of evil from which the Empire grows. In the Star Wars films that follow, there is only a glimpse of Coruscant - you can see a giant statue of the Emperor being toppled there at the end of Jedi - but the sense is still very much that Coruscant is at the center of the galaxy. After the Empire collapsed, did Coruscant once again become a free planet, aligned with the Rebels? And when the First Order arose out of the ashes of the Empire, did this revived faction take over again in Coruscant? It looks like The Force Awakens will spend much of its time on new planets Jakku and Starkiller Base, but hopefully it won't elect to ignore what's been going on over at what at least was the most important and influential planet in the galaxy.