3. The Bad Guy(s)
The biggest hurdle this entire sequel project has is establishing a villain or indeed villains. The end of Return of the Jedi has Luke and the rebels not only take out the Empire but the rest of the Sith too! Thats a galaxy with a serious lack of opposition now and if we do pick up 30 years later you might argue that thats been enough time to sort out any Empire dregs post civil war. All Star Wars villains so far have felt personal to the good guys and it's quite impossible to deliver another Darth Vader (or indeed Darth Maul) with getting repetitive Its a key ingredient to how Star Wars works. Its not the case of whos the bad guy in this Episode (though there is of course a touch of that as well), its always about light vs. dark. Father vs. son, master vs. apprentice and really Luke Skywalker has sorted all of that out. So, who's going to upset the apple cart? Looking across the saga we have a number of separatist bad guys we know the faces of now, so I suppose a bad guy could spawn out of that bunch. But then thats very repetitive. Ex-Empire members? I'm not sure that would really slide. Small splinter ex-Empire generals and such doesn't really promise much in the way of Star Wars goodness beyond a grand space battle, so if this does end up being the case, I would imagine this would only be a small element of the threat, as with the Trade Federation droid armies or the stormtroopers. The bigger drama has to be generated from our lead characters and the more I've thought about it, the more there seems to be an obvious possibility. If Luke Skywalker is training the Solo kids, it cant be a stretch to say that one of them could start going off the rails, after all they would have a bit of the Solo rebellious streak in them presumably. The tension between two siblings is classic stuff and Star Wars deals in classic storytelling, especially when it comes to dysfunctional families. The siblings could potentially have a falling out, to the point where either out of frustration or anger, a fatality occurs. I guess the go to obvious choice is the death of Luke Skywalker (I'm already tearing up with that thought). Either way, the failed sibling, either male or female but Im gonna go with female, just to make it different goes on the run. This will in turn push the remaining sibling, the brother, to want to track down his sister. This will bring Han and Leia into the fold because Han will want to sort out his family and Leias struggle between her family and her responsibilities in the Senate could also come into play. This fallout would give us a great many things to play with. One Solo on the run across the galaxy, giving us chances to meet new characters and go places with another more driven Solo on her tail. More than that though it will give us a few insights. One Padawan has made a fatal mistake and killed their master, she would be filled with regret, sadness and potentially a desire to fix things. On the other side, another Padawan is more fuelled with anger, pain and the desire to track down a sibling. This is the arena Star Wars does so well. We will be able to watch as both Padawans struggle. Both would be walking a tightrope of emotions and offer the potential to go dark side due to their turmoil. I think this could show what birthed the Sith and Jedi and how close their origins truly are without having someone tell us the story from a book or someone giving us a history lesson. Both Solo kids would have to face one another at some stage across the new trilogy in order to fix the family feud. Luke, as a blue ghost could visit both and it would also give Han a reason to use his knowledge of the seedier side of the galaxy to track down his kid (with Chewie of course) and we could see the struggle to keep both on the right path. After all the force is still in balance but here its on a tipping point. Which one could turn to the dark side? Will either of them? Will they both? And who around them will affect their choices? Thats Star Wars folks. Of course, this is conjecture. Fan speculation. A hope from an individual that these sequels keep these character's stories personal and identifiable but whether you like my off the cuff idea or whether you dont, it leads into the next obstacle for Episode 7 quite nicely.