Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Starter for Ren…

Director J.J. Abrams Starring John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher ETA 18 December

Kylo Ren is a member of the Knights Of Ren. Who are…? No idea. Poe Dameron is sent by “a certain princess” on a mission. Which is…? Haven’t the foggiest. And C-3PO has a red arm. Because…. R2 pranked him while he slept? OK, there are certain back alleys of the internet you could trawl for (possible) answers, but officially at least there’s been a bare minimum of hard info about the year’s biggest movie. And in classic J. J. style, each nugget has only teased more mysteries – and more speculation. Like the “completely intentional” withholding of protags Rey and Finn’s surnames… Finn Kenobi? Rey Vader? Finn The Hutt?

Of course, the most burning question of all is: will it be actually bloody good? Well, one person who seems fairly certain it will be is Harrison Ford – and you can’t take the star’s endorsement for granted given a) grumbles he’s made over the years (“I wouldn’t go back there again,” he told TF in 2008. “Those pants!”) and b) his own ship tried to kill him (well, broke his leg, but still). Yet Ford was there, smiling and waving a toy lightsaber at July’s Comic-Con, where he lauded Lawrence Kasdan’s script as “really remarkable, really well written… I was very happy.”

Returning to his star-making role should’ve felt “ridiculous”, he admitted, but turned out to be “great”. He even signed John Boyega’s Han Solo-as-a-Stormtrooper action figure on set. We’ll soon see Boyega in the Imperial whites himself, as well as wielding a lightsaber – two images that alone suggest a beefy character arc. But maybe the best reason to get our (new) hopes up is Abrams’ unequivocal response when asked if “midi-chlorians” would feature in The Force Awakens: “No.”