Here's what we know for sure about Star Wars Episode VII so far: they started filming on May 16 of this year and it'll be released on December 18, 2015. JJ Abrams will direct from a script by him and Lawrence Kasdan. It's got a pretty great cast, with both new actors and returning stars from the original trilogy. It will be set thirty years after Return Of The Jedi. And, er, that's about it, so far as official information goes. Abrams is being his usual coy self, playing his cards close to the chest, with character and plot details pretty thin on the ground so far. Life finds a way, however, and between speculation and possibly legit leaks, we actually have a pretty good idea of what's going to be going down in a few months from now, in a cinema not so far away... Sure, Abrams and Disney have been pretty quiet about spilling the beans on what's actually going to happen in Episode VII, but Star Wars fans aren't the type to take such secrecy lying down. They've been piecing together little clues from the director's social media, set videos in concert with the UNICEF Force For Change campaign, along with a healthy dose of spoilers that have come from disgruntled crew members or other production staff with nothing to lose. Rumours have been bandied about ever since films got announced, obviously, but now that they're knee deep in actually filming the first of the new Star Wars trilogy we're beginning to get some alleged details that are a little more convincing. It's not a load of nerdy stuff based off the Expanded Universe and other such speculation, and more stuff that seems pretty concrete and believable. And still pretty nerdy, actually. With all this hearsay scattered throughout the web we thought we'd collect the most convincing pieces you need to know - here are the nine biggest rumours about Star Wars Episode VII right now.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
