Now this is the biggie. One of the more outlandish pieces of speculation and there's been a tonne of speculation over this film has been that Darth Vader would be returning in The Force Awakens, in some form or another. The late Anakin Skywalker appeared to meet a fairly definitive demise at the end of Return Of The Jedi, finally sacrificing himself to kill Emperor Palpatine and save his son and, by extension, the universe from Imperial rule. Rumour had it that Irish WWE grappler Sheamus would be filling the iconic costume in place of the elderly David Prowse, with James Earl Jones returning to do the voice in a flashback scene or something. But the more that gets revealed about the new Star Wars film, the more it seems like Vader may somehow be back for good. That new Sith with the janky lighstaber certainly has a similar get up and respiratory issues as the last Darth. The long lingering shot of the scourge of the Original Trilogy must be important. And, perhaps most crucially, during Luke's voiceover monologue he says of the Force I have it, my sister has it, my father has it. Has it. Not had it. Has. Present tense. Could it be that The Force Awakens involves not only new Jedi and Sith, but perhaps a final battle between the two that almost brought each of their kind to extinction last time around? Now that would be a twist. And JJ Abrams loves twists...
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/
