LATEST NEWS

Are the New Rumors About 'Star Wars: Episode VII' Villains True?

by Ethan Anderton
June 19, 2014

There's been some news and rumors swirling about the plot and villains of Star Wars: Episode VII as production is underway at Pinewood Studios in London. The most buzz has been about Harrison Ford injuring his ankle and supposedly taking him out of action for eight weeks, but with the cast already announced, and more additions added in the form of Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie, it's the plot details that are starting to leak. The most recent rumors focus on who the bad guys are this time around. If you're looking to stay blind to any Star Wars info, then don't read on, because there's potential spoilers.

An untested source at MakingStarWars.net reports that the villains this time around aren't the Sith, as has been the cast with all six of the previous films. Instead, the rumor is the villains are “Jedi Hunters” and they're described as "scary individuals, dressed in black, some helmeted, that hunt Jedi for the Empire." This group is said to wear black and chrome with troopers accompanying them in similar black and chrome uniforms. The higher-up bad guys even use lightsabers to hunt down the Jedi and their goal is supposedly to resurrect the Sith (leading to events of Episode VIII) while getting rid of their adversaries.

Supposedly, this is the group of bad guys that Adam Driver leads, and the rumor also added that Lupita Nyong'o would be part of this villain group, also adding that David Oyelowo would be part of the cast, and hasn't been revealed yet. That last part is interesting because Oyelowo has been linked to the "Rebels" animated series on the way, one of the first major pieces of the all-encompassing Star Wars canon. In fact, the description of these new Episode VII villains actually sounds eerily similar to The Inquisitor (seen below), the villain that Oyelowo has been linked to for the TV series.

However, here's where we get to the debunking. First of all, Latino Review says David Oyelowo isn't on the set of Star Wars: Episode VII and he's not voicing some kind of computer animated character in the film either. It sounds like his involvement is only in the aforementioned Star Wars TV series. The debunking references some investigative work from TheForce.net that actually has surmised that Oyelowo isn't actually voicing The Inquisitor, but rather another one named Imperial Agent Kallus. That makes it seem as if the rumor was grasping at straws and looking for some kind of connection to "Rebels."

At the same time, that doesn't mean the initial rumor is 100% wrong. Latino Review says they haven't heard the term "Jedi Hunters" being used, but they have heard the word "mercenaries" thrown around when referring to these bad guys. And the talk about the designs for the villains sounds right on the money according to their sources as well. But what's not clear is if this group of mercenaries are working for remnants of The Empire, or what state the rest of the galactic republic might be in following the events of Return of the Jedi. There, it seems to early to confirm whether or not they're trying to resurrect the Sith or have other motives that will lead into the following episodes.

What's interesting, is that we're not hearing about the role of our classic heroes in all of this. What are Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa doing? Well, if these guys are really hunting down Jedi, then as Latino Review hypothesizes, it only makes sense that Skywalker is in hiding. Perhaps the whole film is about finding Luke as this new threat emerges. Is he building up an army of secret Jedi to battle the new villains? What possible motivation could these new bad guys have following the events of Return of the Jedi? Is someone ordering them around like the Empire? Or are they totally in control? Thoughts?

Tweet

Find more posts: Movie News, Rumors, Star Wars

14 Comments

New comments are no longer allowed on this post.