25 Star Wars characters who should get their own standalone film
By Kyle Cobey
Image Credit: Lucasfilm
17. The Guardians of the Whills
Most of you only might only know the Guardians of the Whills from characters Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It is after all the only time the characters are even mentioned in any of the Star Wars films. In Rogue One, Rebel Cassian Andor tells Jyn Erso that they were Protectors of the Kyber temple in Jedha before the Empire showed up.
The legend surrounding them in the Star Wars fan community doesn’t stop there of course. Why is that? Well, in the early drafts of the screenplay for A New Hope, George Lucas originally had a character known as a “Whill” doing the storytelling. Information about this came out in a book called “Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays.” Lucas goes on to mention that a Whill would have more than likely been “wiser” than the other characters and also immortal. He ended up telling the story through the eyes of a couple droids you might have heard of: R2-D2 and C-3P0.
But the concept of the Whills are what eventually gave Lucas the idea of the Force. Other legends about the Guardians of the Whills include being an ancient Shaman community living in the city of Jedha, who may use and have knowledge of the force, but aren’t Jedi. Although that idea is pure speculation from die-hard fans, it’s nonetheless very intriguing.
So if perhaps it is true, there are other organizations maybe even religious groups, that use the force. Wouldn’t it make for an awesome Star Wars standalone film? I think so.