Star Wars’s Two New Central Characters
MakingStarWars.net is back at it, this time going into some specific detail regarding two of the brand-new characters that will be making their debut in Star Wars: Episode VII.
(Warning: possible spoilers ahead!)
Played by relative British newcomers John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, these two characters are described as being meaty – if not central – parts, and they’re only expected to become even more dominant as the narrative of the sequel trilogy progresses.
“Let’s consider this piece speculatory, but informed,” the site writes. “It is more than a shot in the dark, but it is less than confirmed. So, once again, we are sharing something that might make a lot of sense but could be somewhat circumstantial at the same time.”
Here’s everything we (possibly) know in handy-dandy bullet point format:
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- Boyega’s character starts on the Dark Side, figuratively if not also literally. By the end of Episode VII, however, he starts to make his transition to Luke Skywalker and company’s side (a tried-and-true Star Wars character arc, particularly from the original trilogy).
- He is shot down over Tatooine, Anakin and Luke’s homeworld, and is injured in the subsequent crash-landing – which is supposedly what the Abu Dhabi location shoot last month was all about.
- Ridley’s character rescues Boyega from the wreckage of his fighter and helps mend his wounds. This, unsurprisingly, becomes the basis of their relationship, and it also, even more unsurprisingly, plants the seeds for Boyega’s eventual defection.
- It is heavily suggested that Ridley and Boyega’s “innocent flirtation” in Episode VII will lead to a full-blown romance in Episode VIII – precisely what occurred between Han Solo and Leia Organa in the original trilogy and between Anakin and Padme Amidala in the prequels.
- Boyega supposedly has been spotted on set with a lightsaber, leading to the conclusion that he is a Jedi Knight (or that he will become one, at the least, by film’s end). It has been said that he fights using a two-handed style that is more reminiscent of the original films than the one-handed style largely favored in the prequels.
- Finally, the site speculates that the characters in question “discover they share the same propensity for the Force that has so far been untapped – until they meet a certain old Jedi in the second act of the film.”
As has been noted throughout, these archetypal beats are so well-ingrained in the Star Wars saga to date, it’s impossible to discern whether they’re real leaks or simply fan fiction of the more informed variety.
We shall see soon enough.
The still-untitled Star Wars: Episode VII hits theaters on December 18, 2015. It stars returning cast members Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker and newcomers John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow, Adam Driver, and Andy Serkis.