Character Names Revealed
After the trailer dropped two weeks ago, more people became aware of the existence of The Force Awakens, and therefore, more speculation and more rumors. I've already examined many rumors, including ones that are very vague, and ones that are extremely detailed. During this time, many rumors ultimately contradicted themselves, or actual leaks disproved them, or even official releases by Lucasfilm disproved them. However several rumors still loom, including the MSW rumor.
Another such rumor emerged last week in a series of 4Chan posts, collected on Reddit by a self-proclaimed "Spoiler Man", claiming to be a Lucasfilm employee with insider knowledge. According to "Spoiler Man", TFA takes place 30-40 years after RoTJ (no surprise there). The Empire and the New Republic have settled into a war of attrition. Daisy Ridley plays Kira (a name mentioned by MSW) who is Han and Leia's daughter. She lives with Max von Sydow. Boyega plays a Force sensitive Stormtrooper who defects to Tatooine. Interesting plot stuff happens. Luke is introduced. Presumably Han Solo dies. Oh yeah, Chewbacca has a robot arm. The plot sounds very similar to the MSW version. The third act remains "unspoiled" by Spoiler Man, because he is a very courteous person who presumably just spoiled two-thirds of the movie.
Here's what Mark Hamill had to say about spoilers in an interview with IGN:
"To tell you the truth, I’m one of those people that… I like being surprised. I don’t want to read spoilers and I hate it when I go see a trailer and you see this thing and you go, “Gee, that’s pretty much the whole movie.” They set up the premise, they show the conflict, they show partial resolution. The only thing they don’t show is the end credits. Where’s the thrill in that?...I just don’t understand the motivation for people wanting to ruin it for people but that’s the world we’re living in. It’s based on clicks on websites to see if they can get information out there. I’ll be surprised if they don’t leak the whole script between now and next year. But I hope not!"
I hope not, either. But luckily, it seems that "Spoiler Man" and Making Star Wars both got it wrong, thanks to a very important clue.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Lucasfilm just released the names of all the characters in the 88-second teaser. The names were put on mock-ups of trading cards, which were very popular in the 1970s after Star Wars came out. Shots from the trailer are put on a red or blue background, with a short description of the name of the character and what they are doing. Without further ado, here are the names of some of the characters in The Force Awakens:
Here's what Mark Hamill had to say about spoilers in an interview with IGN:
"To tell you the truth, I’m one of those people that… I like being surprised. I don’t want to read spoilers and I hate it when I go see a trailer and you see this thing and you go, “Gee, that’s pretty much the whole movie.” They set up the premise, they show the conflict, they show partial resolution. The only thing they don’t show is the end credits. Where’s the thrill in that?...I just don’t understand the motivation for people wanting to ruin it for people but that’s the world we’re living in. It’s based on clicks on websites to see if they can get information out there. I’ll be surprised if they don’t leak the whole script between now and next year. But I hope not!"
I hope not, either. But luckily, it seems that "Spoiler Man" and Making Star Wars both got it wrong, thanks to a very important clue.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Lucasfilm just released the names of all the characters in the 88-second teaser. The names were put on mock-ups of trading cards, which were very popular in the 1970s after Star Wars came out. Shots from the trailer are put on a red or blue background, with a short description of the name of the character and what they are doing. Without further ado, here are the names of some of the characters in The Force Awakens:
So Oscar Isaac plays X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron, Daisy Ridley plays Rey, John Boyega plays Finn, and an unnamed actor (Adam Driver?) plays Kylo Ren. Also the soccer ball droid is BB-8. These names may or may not have greater implications for these characters. For example, Kylo Ren, who is obviously a bad guy, unless he is a good guy with a red lightsaber (plot twist!), but let's assume that he is a bad guy. Shouldn't he have a more villainy name? I mean, Kylo Ren is great and all, but it sounds like a subordinate bad guy, someone that may give the main characters a lot of trouble in the first movie, but the real master is revealed in the subsequent films. Maybe this villain will make the name awesome, through actions, but it doesn't feel like a very evil name. Granted, maybe at first Darth Vader didn't either. Poe Dameron, and X-Wing pilot. Could his name have any connection to Edgar Allen Poe? This could mean that this character has a dark side (much like the real Poe). Or it could mean nothing. As for Finn, it's okay, I guess. Kind of boring. But Rey is the real kicker. Sure, it may be another boring, alienish name, but it proves one thing: the spoilers floating around recently are badly discredited. Both the Making Star Wars and 4Chan stories have Ridley's character as "Kira", not Rey. If the spoilers were true, wouldn't they have gotten right what the name of a major character was? And if that isn't true, how can you trust the rest of the story? Rumor busted!
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