Clues That Hinted At The Force Awakens' Biggest Spoilers
It was pretty clear that as soon as Disney announced they were making a new Star Wars sequel, they were going to keep everything about it super secret—especially when they hired J.J. Abrams to direct it, since he's a director famous for not letting any details about his projects get leaked out ahead of time. As hard as they tried, however, they couldn't keep everything secret. Looking back, some of the movie's biggest twists should have been pretty obvious from the get-go. Here are all the overlooked clues that teased the biggest spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
Lack of Rey
After the release of The Force Awakens, a controversy arose over the lack of merchandise for Rey. She's the real hero of the movie and is clearly being set up to be the next Jedi master and savior for the light side of the Force. The movie's finale features Rey saving the day and an epic lightsaber duel between her and Kylo Ren. However, based on the marketing and toys for the film, Rey was treated like a minor character. Even looking at the trailers that were released prior to the film's release, you'll notice Rey present, except during most of the action scenes. Her biggest moments in the movie give away major details about her character, so it makes sense that her action scenes weren't as prevalent. It was supposed to be a surprise when Rey found out that she was sensitive to the Force, and it was a high point of the film when she used it to take back Luke's lightsaber. That's part of what made marketing her character so hard. Why would they put her front and center of the poster if she wasn't the hero? That would be like putting C-3PO as the focal point of the marketing campaign.
Han Solo overload
We all should have seen the death of Han Solo coming. The majority of the marketing for the movie was based on how cool it was to see Han Solo again. It made sense to advertise the fact that Harrison Ford was returning, but it also kind of gave away his death in the movie. First, it was exciting that he was coming back, but fans were just as excited to see Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill as well. Han was clearly being elevated and used more in promoting the film compared to the other characters. Also, his role in the movie was similar to Obi-Wan's role in A New Hope. Since it was pretty clear that The Force Awakens was going to follow the same story beats as A New Hope, we knew Han wasn't going to survive the movie, based on him having the Obi-Wan role. Not to mention that Harrison Ford has made it clear over the years that he's not a huge fan of the series. He kept trying to get Solo killed off during the original trilogy. He's had a great career since, so why was he all of the sudden so excited for this movie? Because he had finally retired the galaxy's favorite smuggler.
Luke's absence
In the lead-up to The Force Awakens, everyone noticed that Luke Skywalker was conspicuously absent from all the marketing. Other than his voice being heard in the trailers (and a split-second scene with R2-D2), the only evidence that Mark Hamill was in the film was his name appearing in the cast list on the movie posters. In the actual movie, it turns out that Luke Skywalker has disappeared and everyone in the galaxy is looking for him. Well, yeah, so was the audience! The marketing for the movie basically gave away this plot development, but that wasn't so bad. The search for Luke was the drive of the whole story. However, Rey finding Luke at the very end of the movie was supposed to be a surprise. Moviegoers knew Luke would turn up based on how often his name was used in marketing the film—if only the Resistance found one of those posters.
Kylo Ren's identity
Maybe it's not a good idea for the Skywalkers to keep having kids. Children from this family have a very strong chance of becoming a Sith Lord and murdering a bunch of people. Anakin did it, Luke and Leia avoided it (barely), and Leia's son Benjamin ended up becoming Kylo Ren. Seriously, this family needs to stop making new Skywalkers. They're not all bad, but there are huge ramifications. Also, it was supposed to be a surprise that Ren was actually Han and Leia's kid. The trailers made it clear that Ren had some sort of connection to Darth Vader, which would be weird for a non-Skywalker because Emperor Palpatine was the guy in charge. As far as the galaxy knew, Darth Vader was just his enforcer. Also, there's a lot of fan speculation about where the name Kylo comes from. Ren is explained as a title coming from the Knights of Ren, a sith order. This might be a bit of a reach, but since Kylo has no explanation yet, many speculate his first name is a combination of Skywalker and Solo, which is what Kylo literally is. Maybe fans are reading too much into this, but that's kind of what Star Wars fans do.
Of course that was a Death Star
The trailers for Episode VII didn't reveal too much about the plot. Instead, they introduced many of the different characters. When the first official poster was released, there was a clearly a Death Star-like space station included in the image. About halfway through the movie, it's revealed that the New Order has built a new, larger Death Star, this time called the Starkiller. It's actually a pretty cool upgrade, but even the movie acknowledged the notion that it was just a bigger version of something everyone had already seen. If the movie wanted to treat the reveal of the Starkiller base as a surprise, why include it on the poster at all? Looking at it, of course it's a Death Star. In the context of the movie, it's supposed to come as a shock that the New Order has a weapon of that much magnitude and power. Why be obvious with it in the marketing and then act coy about it in the actual plot of the movie? The Resistance needs to facilitate a meeting between Star Wars' production and marketing teams for future episodes.