Today we have a rumor that Sith Inquisitors, or “Jedi Hunters,” will figure into Episode VII as villains. The folks at Making Star Wars claim to have heard this from sources at Pinewood.
The characters are not full Sith, but they “worship the Sith and want to resurrect them” and “their mandate was to protect the Sith at all costs and insure their survival.” Supposedly they’ve been hunting Luke since the Emperor’s death – and that’s one reason why we’re not going to see anything like the New Republic in the film.
It’s said that both Adam Driver and Lupita Nyong’o will be among this group. (As well as David Oyelowo, who was rumored to be involved in both Episode VII and Rebels, but has never been confirmed in any way.) Driver’s character has connections to the Big 3 and turned… No, I still don’t think he’s a Skywalker/Solo himself, but it’s not too big a stretch to consider that he’s perhaps a former student of Luke’s. (Shades of many Expanded Universe characters there, though I doubt he’s going to end up being “Kyp Durron” or anything so obvious as that.)
UPDATE: Eric at TFN has doubts about Oyelowo – he think he’s voicing a different Rebels character. UPDATE #2 (6/17:) And now he’s saying it’s all wrong. Shrug.
Still, we do know from Rebels that the ‘Inquisitors’ are indeed making the jump to canon. I’m not going to jump right on board this, but it’s certainly possible. After all, weren’t we just talking at JadeCon about the Sith’s apparent lack of a contingency plan?
I’ll jump: I like the idea of the Inquisitor-type baddies, but I hate the idea of no NR, and the fact that Luke et al have been constantly on the run since Jedi. That to me just sounds like they’ve had 30 years of misery, and misery is precisely why I, and others, quit the EU in the first place.
Of course I take all this with a healthy dose of sodium. And obviously Star Wars isn’t supposed to be all rainbows and unicorns, but I do see it as a more modern fairy tale than anything, and to imagine our heros having had no peace for all that time just seems…tiring.
It all depends on the execution, not the idea itself, really. (I could pull out my old ASOIAF vs. NJO analogy here, but meh.) But the galaxy being miserable doesn’t mean ALL their lives have been horrible. It doesn’t mean that Han and Leia couldn’t have been happy together, that Luke hasn’t successfully trained any Jedi or gotten married himself. It doesn’t mean that H/L have already buried 2 out of 3 kids. I mean, yeah, the NJO kind of lost the thread of SW being a space FANTASY, but I’d so much rather they’re still dealing with Imperials and Sith flackeys in a NATURAL way, instead of the Organic BorgKlingons we got in the books. Hell, isn’t the whole reason we got the Vong people being tired of lame Imperial/Superweapon plots that didn’t really make as much sense with the New Republic being a large factor? Having a stronger Empire post-Endor makes that sort of thing SO much more plausible. And remember, when all that groundwork was laid we knew very, very little about the state of the galaxy pre-ANH.
Hell, for all we know there WERE treaties. Maybe there are/were different Imperial factions (pro-Sith and anti-Sith?) battling it out as well, and that’s where most of the 30 years went, with the Alliance being fairly small potatoes. Maybe Luke is the only one on the run, maybe Leia has been concentrating on building New Alderaan (with blessing from ‘good Imperials?’ Reparations? A neutrality treaty? Hidden out in the rim?) There are so many ways they could go now…
Fair points, and if it goes that way then I’ll be glad for it, because you’re right: the superweapon of the week would have gone down easier if it had been more plausible.
My default setting, however, sits somewhere between “meh” to “oh god this is worse than before.” I know it’s unrealistic of me – it’s Star Wars after all – but I would like to think see some goodness, some fun, returned to the universe after all the misery that we know happened.
This storyline really dilutes the ending of RotJ. What was all that sacrifice for? 30 years of being a fugitive? Thought good was finally conquering evil.
Who says anything about a fugitive? The rumor states that Luke has been fighting those guys. Sounds more like a guerrilla crusade to me than anything else. The EU has examples of that, e.g. the shadow war between the two KotOR games. Doesn’t make Luke a fugitive, just a lone, crusading knight in need of a new Jedi Order.
I don’t really care who Lupita plays because she’s going to look awesome doing it no matter what but the idea of her playing a villainy-type person is awesome. (Okay, part of me wants to see her kick whiny farmboy-turned-seasoned-citizen’s butt. Because that would be worth the ticket price…)