The Biggest Revelations From The New Star Wars Posters

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will finally be upon us in December. But even though its theatrical debut is still months away, that doesn't mean we're not going to spend every waking moment speculating about what the heck this new movie is about. Disney just released a whole slew of new posters featuring some of the new characters, as well as some old favorites. Here's what they mean—or, well, what we think they mean.

Maybe this isn't much of a revelation to you, but we definitely had our doubts about whether or not Finn would be part of the next generation of Jedi in The Force Awakens. Sure, he's seen holding a lightsaber in the first poster and unfurling a lightsaber in the big movie trailer, but it's not like we haven't seen non-Jedi characters swing a lightsaber before. Remember Han Solo cutting open a dead tauntaun to keep warm on the ice planet of Hoth? Of course you do. In the trailer, Finn looks sufficiently terrified at the prospect of facing off against the movie's villain, Kylo Ren. But this latest poster all but confirms that Finn is going to be associated with lightsabers in a big way. And we know he's leaving the First Order Stormtroopers for as-yet unknown reasons. If he's Force sensitive, that's pretty much a great reason to ditch the white helmet.

As little as we know about Finn, we know even less about Rey. We know she lives on the desert planet of Jakku, which sure seems pretty similar to Luke Skywalker's old stomping grounds of Tatooine. The new poster shows her holding her staff-like weapon in front of her, and up close, it definitely has plenty in common with the gaffi sticks wielded by the Tusken Raiders from A New Hope, the band of desert marauders who gave Luke so much grief. But more than that, there are elements to the weapon that sure do look a lot like the cannibalized remains of a lightsaber. See that bit with the vertical lines that all slope down at an angle? Do a quick Google search for the lightsaber hilt of Mace Windu and Darth Maul. We're laying it down now: Rey has access to some old lightsaber tech and has a tighter connection to the Jedi than the trailers seem to reveal.

Everyone knows that Han Solo is an intergalactic senior citizen by now. He should have long since retired to the quiet life on Corellia, drinking space beers with Chewbacca in his garage, trying to get out of mowing the space lawn. As we can see from the poster, however, Solo's still toting his signature blaster, ready to shoot first and run screaming later. The decades since Han Solo's last adventure don't seem to have affected his penchant for shooting stuff whatsoever. The fact that he's ready for action so many years later seems to indicate that The Force Awakens will feature the Solo of old...not just the old Solo.

So, as you may have surmised from the rest of these posters, each character appears with their weapon of choice. There's an exception to that rule: Leia, who appears to be standing near some kind of tactical map or display, like an updated version of the one from Empire Strikes Back. While she's not holding a gun, laser sword, or space-stick, she is surrounded by data. Why's that? Because she uses data and tactics as a weapon. Ever since her first appearance in A New Hope (skipping right over her appearance as an infant in Revenge of the Sith, thank you), Leia has been holding it down as the Rebellion's boss. Every victory they have comes from her daring exploits and her plans. She lies to Vader's face about where she sent the Death Star plans, she lays out the orders to the snow speeder pilots at the Rebel base on Hoth, and she orchestrates the rescue operation of Han Solo from Jabba's palace. She's not holding a gun, a stick, or a lightsaber in her poster because she doesn't need one—she is the weapon. Also: we'll never see those hair buns again.

We still don't know a whole lot about the movie's villain, Kylo Ren. We do know that he's seemingly obsessed with Darth Vader. We also know that he's got a new kind of lightsaber—one with two baby sabers comprising its hilt. However, the new poster seems to reveal a lightsaber that isn't quite as clean-looking as the other ones we've seen. It's not a single, perfect blade of light—like the one Finn seems to be holding in his poster. That seems to indicate that he's not a pro at building lightsabers, despite the fancy new hilt. And why else would Ren be obsessed with Darth Vader, unless he was in need of a Lord of the Sith to show him the ways of the Dark Side? He doesn't even have "darth" in his name. That's what we're thinking: Ren cobbled together his lightsaber without much in the way of guidance from a master, and he's on the hunt to bring Vader back to life so he can be his apprentice. "Always two, there are," after all—expect that to be Ren's ultimate goal.

Another poster, another lack of Luke. Where is our favorite Jedi from the original Star Wars trilogy? He's the hero that helped us believe in the Force in the first place. We know he's in the new movie because, well, we've been told specifically that he's in it. We heard his voice-over in one of the movie's trailers. Luke is most definitely in this thing in one form or another. But his face has yet to appear in a single promotional item which seems to lend tons of credence to the idea that he's somehow under Kylo Ren's mask (though we doubt this) or otherwise hidden for some reason we've yet to discover. He could be in hiding like Obi Wan from the start of A New Hope and Yoda in Empire Strikes Back. Or maybe he's been horribly disfigured. Whatever the case is, Disney is keeping one of their best shots at marketing this movie tightly under wraps, so there's got to be a major reason for that. Expect to gasp when you finally figure out what it is.