Star Wars: Episode VII Plot Details Reveal The Main Character And Secret New Threats

Could this be the first image we'll see in Episode VII?

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Luke SkywalkerStar Wars: Episode VII is kind of a big deal, you probably guessed that. It’s also a huge secret. Director J.J. Abrams, Disney, and Lucasfilm kept the cast under wraps until they were just about ready to get the cameras rolling, and the plot has been more heavily guarded than many classified government documents. But just like there are leaks in government agencies, there are leaks from the London-based set of Episode VII, and the latest rumors floating around may give you an idea of what the story of the latest addition to the Star Wars canon may look like.

Stop reading if you don’t want to encounter SPOILERS. Things are intentionally vague, but still, it could ruin things for you, so you may want to STOP READING now. You’ve been warned.

Oddly enough, the rumors floating around involve a hand floating around in space. This report comes from multiple sources cited by Badass Digest, who are pretty reliable when it comes to this sort of thing, and aren’t known for randomly spouting unsubstantiated hearsay. Still, this is all unconfirmed, so make of it what you will.

According to the report, the first image you see after the traditional opening crawl is hand, a severed hand clutching a lightsaber, just sort of drifting around in space. It eventually lands on desert planet that may or may not be Tatooine, where the characters played by franchise newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega happen upon the dismembered appendage. There are no details on the nature of who these two folks are, but they recognize this as the preferred weapon of the Jedi Knights, and go on a quest to return it to its owner. If I find a disembodied hand I immediately assume the person it belongs to is way dead, but maybe I’m a pessimist. This also confirms rumors that Boyega is the main character, and that he “own” in Episode VII.

BoyegaTheir journey leads them off of their dry, arid planet, where they encounter Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). While the duo is still flying around the galaxy, it’s not in the Millennium Falcon. The report doesn’t share the true nature of their ship because it’s apparently a big spoiler, so we can only speculate. This isn’t just any old lightsaber, Han and Chewie recognize it as belonging to Luke Skywalker, which concerns them because they haven’t seen their old pal since the events of Return of the Jedi 30 years earlier. That’s a long time to stay out of touch, but if those earlier, Jedi Hunter reports have any validity at all, it’s entirely possible that he could be in hiding. However this works out, the mission becomes a search for the long-lost Jedi.

This set up has garnered comparisons to the narrative arc of A New Hope, reportedly an intentional move as Abrams and company want to recapture the magic and wonder of the first trilogy. It sets characters in motion on a journey that will carry them through three movies. While this could easily be a rehash, it sounds more like a similar launching point that will trade in nostalgia, but hopefully lead down a different path.

But the hand and the quest to find the missing Jedi aren’t the only things we’ve learned from this report. While all of this is going on, there are also “nefarious forces” at work, building a new “super weapon” in secret, much like the Empire did with the Death Stars. Squirreled away on a remote, unexplored ice planet in some far corner of the galaxy, this is a device “capable of destroying not planets but entire solar systems.” That’ll be fun.

So what do you think? Do you like this beginning to the new saga? How about the overall direction? Do you think it’s accurate, or do you hope Star Wars: Episode VII turns out to be nothing like this when you sit down in theaters on December 18, 2015?