J.J. Abrams did it. He brought Star Wars back in explosive, entertaining fashion. Not only that, but he managed to ensure that many of The Force Awakens big surprises were, well, surprises. The marketing was incredibly tight, selling the movie on iconography over plot, and the usual rampant leaks that pester his peers were nowhere to be seen. Even someone like me, who dedicated an obscene amount of time in 2015 to dissecting and overanylising ever scrap of footage released, was still surprised. So well done to J.J. - he successfully kept a lid on spoilers for the most anticipated movie ever. Except he didn't. Despite a very clear and tight ruling in leaks ("Loose Lips Sink Starships") and some now-obvious misdirection (Mark Hamill talked in January 2015 about being on the Millennium Falcon), details about Episode VII slipped out in the months leading up to release. A lot of details. In fact, by as early as May 2015, seven months before the film's release, MakingStarWars.com was able to put together a shockingly accurate, beat-by-beat breakdown of the plot. May. That was when Mad Max: Fury Road first appeared. The summary was accompanied with a plea to all those reading to not spoil it for those outside the site, which in a shock bigger than the leak itself was followed - while many outside of the spoiler crowd correctly predicted the key twists, that mostly came from inference. Still, reading this after watching the movie (multiple times) is a very eerie experience - so much of it is bang on the money. The big differences were that Luke's lightsaber was the MacGuffin instead of the map, that Maz was shown to be adept in the Force (even being the one to instil Rey's vision) and the Resistance had their own superweapon that was destroyed by the First Order. Now, while it'd be easy to suggest this was just the cause of misinformation, I'd posit that in fact these rumours show remnants of an early plan for the film, including things that were shot and then changed in editing (which explains that somewhat convoluted end of the second act in the finished product). We at the very least know the Maz scene was greatly altered pretty late on in production (a shot of her meeting Leia was even in the second teaser). Whatever the case may be, the fact remains that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was leaked in May. So it wasn't J.J. Abrams who kept its plot a secret - it was the leakers. Thanks guys. Now let's keep this up for Rogue One. And Episode VIII. And Han Solo. And so on. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in cinemas now.
