I’m not usually one to stand tall with George Lucas, who has – let’s face it – been on pretty much the wrong side of every Star Wars argument since 1983 (Ewok haters might say even earlier). But when the veteran film-maker hinted recently at concern over the way The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams might be planning to use the Force, the all-accompanying mystical power source which played such a vital role in the original trilogy, it might just have been worth listening.
According to a new interview with Abrams, Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa (titled General rather than Princess in the new episode) remains strong with the Force, but never had the time to train as a Jedi, so busy has she been building the new Resistance organisation.
“Her decision to run the rebellion and ultimately this Resistance, and consider herself a General as opposed to a Jedi … it was simply a choice that she took,” Abrams tells IGN. “Not that there’s any regret that she could have and didn’t, but clearly we have seen (and we do again) that she’s still Force strong … and it’s something that I think is an intrinsic piece of [her] character.”
So we can surmise that Leia might just use her powers in The Force Awakens. If she doesn’t, Abrams is allowing a pretty powerful thread from the original trilogy to simply dwindle to nothing. Why bother to bring her back at all, frankly?
But wouldn’t it have been more satisfying to present her as a full Jedi by now? It’s not a gender issue – there have been online rumours that at least two further female characters in Abrams’ film will exhibit Jedi tendencies – but it would have been nice to see Leia given the prominence her character deserved. Instead, she will be just another figure with proto-Force powers who hasn’t made it all the way to tenth dan.
It looks like there will be a few of them in The Force Awakens. We’ve already seen in trailers that John Boyega’s rogue stormtrooper Finn is capable of wielding a lightsaber, usually the exclusive preserve of a Jedi or the dark-side-worshipping Sith. We know that Lupita Nyongo’s Maz Kanata is the owner of eyes which are so powerful that they must remain covered in goggles at all times – so it stands to reason that these are also linked to the Force. But there has been no suggestion that either are fully fledged Jedi.
Likewise, we’ve seen Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren using sinister powers on Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron in trailers, but Abrams has confirmed the freaky Darth Vader fanboy is not a Sith Lord.
Of course, it could all be sleight-of-hand on Abrams’s part. Or the film-maker could be ready to hit us with a fascinating evolutionary path for Lucas’s most totemic creation. In some ways it makes total sense to start the new trilogy at a point where the Force has been sleeping for some time, where its effects are only starting to be felt. After all, there were hundreds of Jedi in the terrible prequels, proving without a doubt that the less is more approach really does work.
And yet all these semi-Sith and demi-Jedis are giving me the heebie-jeebies. It’s enough to make the brain of a long-term Star Wars fan melt into cream cheese. Because, as we head into the final 10 days before Abrams’s movie hits cinemas, only one thing is really for sure: The Force is more muddled than it has ever been before.
- JJ Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in UK cinemas on 17 December and arrives in the US a day later.
