10 Ways Star Wars Episode 8 Will Probably Rip Off Empire Strikes Back

Could Rey carry Luke on her back, Yoda-style?

The extent of Star Wars: The Force Awakens' homages to the original Star Wars film from 1977 rankled fans somewhat. JJ Abrams' movie was undeniably entertaining, but did it need to be quite so similar to what we had already seen? A lot of people think it didn't, and certain sections of the internet were noisily peeved by the apparent rehash. The similarities began right at the start of the movie, with a droid (now BB-8 instead of R2-D2) containing important information being abandoned on another sandy planet. The droid made some new friends (one a Force sensitive orphan), left the planet on the Millennium Falcon with the help of Han Solo and Chewbacca, and brought the plans to Princess Leia. The recycled plot points continued right through until the third act, where the mentor character (now Han Solo, not Obi-Wan) died a tragic death at the hands of a black-suited baddie within the confines of a very-familiar-feeling spherical space station. Speaking of which, pretty much every spaceship in the film was a subtle rebrand of one that we'd seen before. Throughout every aspect of the film, there were reheated old concepts instead of shiny new notions. Hopefully, Episode VIII will have a few more original ideas up its sleeve. Although, given the success of The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm likely see the worth in George Lucas' rhyming and probably won't be able to resist ripping off The Empire Strikes Back...
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Film & TV journo. Quite tall.