Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been suffering from set leaks since before shooting even began, with a plethora of concept art and cast photos somehow winding up online. Throw in almost countless rumours about the plot - all of which pretty much conflict each other in some way - and J.J. Abrams' Mystery Box has sprung some serious leaks over the past twelve months or so. However, with two trailers and now a new batch of stills out there, Disney and Lucasfilm have begun to start pulling back the curtain on this secretive movie themselves, and a recent feature by Entertainment Weekly delved into the secrets of Star Wars: The Force Awakens like never before. New plot details, behind the scenes stories, and huge character reveals have all been released through the magazine, and even if you've had chance to take a look, you might just be surprised by what you missed. After all, this is shaping up to be the biggest movie of 2015, so there's an awful lot you need to know before we finally return to a Galaxy Far, Far Away on December 18th...
8. Luke Skywalker's Journey
It's no secret that despite being a huge fan of the franchise, J.J. Abrams was initially reluctant to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy managed to win him around with one very simple question: "In the context of talking about story and laying out what we were thinking, I said one thing to him: Who is Luke Skywalker? It's that which apparently serves as the driving force of this movie, and the magazine heavily alludes to a major status quo shift for Luke by the time the events of The Force Awakens kick off. Could those rumours of him turning to the Dark Side be true? "The themes and ideas that we all continue to talk about are the themes and ideas that were the inherent in the original movies, Kennedy says. Were looking, obviously, for aspiration, for characters who are conflicted between good and evil, dark and light." A recently leaked photo (quickly taken down by websites everywhere after Disney sent out cease and desists) which showed Luke Skywalker in similar garb to that worn by Obi Wan Kenobi appeared to debunk theories that he goes bad, but there's no denying that the Luke at the end of Return of the Jedi was a very different one to the farm boy introduced in A New Hope. Who knows how much he's changed in the decades since. Interestingly, it sounds like Kylo Ren's story will run parallel to Luke's story in the original trilogy in that he rises from obscurity and causes a great upheaval in the Force as a result. "I think that what makes Ren so unique is that he isnt as fully formed as when we meet a character such as Darth Vader," Abrams teases. "And I think that there are two sides to the Force. Both sides, arguably, would see themselves as the hero of their story, and I think that applies here..."
