This morning I read that Andy Serkis' voice narrated the SWTFA trailer. Given the specifics of his tone of voice and the content of his monologue in the trailer, and the article [on Nerdist] providing the photo of Serkis below, I had a potentially mind-crushing realization.

I'm sure I'm not the first to think this, but it's a brand new idea to me, so just be chill if you or someone else thought of it first. I'm still reeling.

Here's Andy Serkis:

Aaaand I'm just going to leave this right here:

Come on, right?

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

Or a clone. Which is pretty solidly established in EU Legends.

I know there are no more obligations for new canon as far as EU Legends is concerned, but I don't think it's given that some ideas won't be reused.

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

Or a clone. Which is pretty solidly established in EU Legends.

I know there are no more obligations for new canon as far as EU Legends is concerned, but I don't think it's given that some ideas won't be reused.

That's precisely the reason I'm not that big on EU stories. They all sound like B-movie writing. "They killed the villain! But he had a clone!!!" At least that's my impression of them from afar, granted I have not ready any.

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

Or a clone. Which is pretty solidly established in EU Legends.

I know there are no more obligations for new canon as far as EU Legends is concerned, but I don't think it's given that some ideas won't be reused.

That's precisely the reason I'm not that big on EU stories. They all sound like B-movie writing. "They killed the villain! But he had a clone!!!" At least that's my impression of them from afar, granted I have not ready any.

EU can definitely be like that at times. I was never a fan of the cloned Emperor stories. Still, if that's what they have planned, and Andy Serkis is the reborn Emperor, I could be willing to negotiate. I think JJ could bring the gravity that's needed for something like this to not be silly.

It's possible, but I would be a bit surprised and frankly more than a bit disappointed. There's so many cool things you can do with Dark Jedi/Sith that there's no just no reason to bring Palpatine back again. Especially not after 30 years.

Besides if they don't, that means a very large section of the Legends is now wiped out and I think that would be a good thing.

The whole cloning the Emperor thing seemed like a plausible thing the Emperor would do. He did clone an entire army, why wouldn't he have a contingency plan to clone himself just in case?

Besides if they don't, that means a very large section of the Legends is now wiped out and I think that would be a good thing.

Hasn't that already happened?

why wouldn't he have a contingency plan to clone himself just in case?

It's not quite the same thing. Those clones weren't Jango Fett, they were clones. So a clone of the Emperor isn't really the Emperor. Plus that the whole idea was that he could transfer his soul/spirit/mind/<insert name here> into the clone. So he effectively lived forever because if his body died he could take over a new one.

Hasn't that already happened?

Yes and no. Legends isn't really that different in concept than the EU was. It wasn't like GL ever felt the need to abide by what happened in the EU. He overwrote a number of stories with the prequels and the Clone Wars stuff.

But seeing how there's no Canon stories after RotJ, the Legends stuff is still semi-canon. Because they only become truly non-canon if something Canon contradicts them.

If for example TFA mentions that the Emperor died and was never seen again after Endor, then all the Books with him as a clone of some sort now becomes truly non-canon. Because then the movie directly contradicts those novels.

I expect a lot of EU will end up that way once TFA comes out, because it's 30 years from Endor, so anything that is either directly contradicted, or even is just omitted will be come truly non-canon.

It's possible, but I would be a bit surprised and frankly more than a bit disappointed. There's so many cool things you can do with Dark Jedi/Sith that there's no just no reason to bring Palpatine back again. Especially not after 30 years.

Besides if they don't, that means a very large section of the Legends is now wiped out and I think that would be a good thing.

I share your concerns for the most part, but I still think it's possible this could be pulled off without being cheesy. I'm sure it would be more involved than just cloning the same character. I imagine that if Serkis were playing an Emperor-like role, it would have, at minimum, distinct iterative differences from the OT Emperor.

At any rate, Star Wars is a good vs. evil moral tale at its heart, so frankly it needs an antagonist that isn't too dissimilar from the Emperor, whether it's a clone or not. You can see they already have a Vader-like character with obvious similarities and equally obvious distinctions.

but I still think it's possible this could be pulled off without being cheesy.

To be honest it's less how cheesy the movie would be, and how stupidly cheesy and mary sue the Emperor became in the EU. I'd like to see him and everything involved with the storylines for him nuked from orbit.

You can see they already have a Vader-like character with obvious similarities and equally obvious distinctions.

In the various Old Republic games, they did a lot of great things with Sith and didn't have them anything like the Emperor or Vader even really.

There's so many options out there for a badguy in the Star Wars universe, that there is IMO no excuse for lazy writing by bringing an old one back again.

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

While I don't think a clone thing is going to happen, it could create a rather nice will he/won't he story line about being drawn to the dark side. Is evil innate, or is the path actively chosen? Think Darth Revan throughout KoTOR.

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

No.

There's so many options out there for a badguy in the Star Wars universe, that there is IMO no excuse for lazy writing by bringing an old one back again.

Absolutely - however...

...at the same time I hope they don't fall into the prequel trap of introducing a new villain with every film. Maul, Dooku, Grevious... nah. Too much chopping (hah) and changing..

One of the reason Vader was such an effective villain in the OT was that he was a constant threat. From the opening scenes of Episode IV, his arrival on the scene heralded bad news for the good guys.

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

No.

I know it sounds abit out there but would you care to elaborate why you don't think its not plausible?

"Small but important role" flashback? Clone who gets aced in the tank?

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

No.

I know it sounds abit out there but would you care to elaborate why you don't think its not plausible?

He comes with a ton of back story that wouldn't fit well into a new film.

I think with 7 they need to really pull people back in quickly. We've been without Star Wars for a while now (especially since the end of 6) so they need a clean plot line that moves forward rather quickly. I think it would be disjointed to attempt to bring in a 4,000 year old character who has all this history and have the first movie in the new series not even be able to scratch the surface.

Imagine they're fighting some unusual Sith presence. And we're all like 'Shiat, It's Darth Farking Revan, ya'll!' and the characters in the film don't know it, and the plebeians around us don't know it. It just gets wonky.

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

No.

I know it sounds abit out there but would you care to elaborate why you don't think its not plausible?

He comes with a ton of back story that wouldn't fit well into a new film.

I think with 7 they need to really pull people back in quickly. We've been without Star Wars for a while now (especially since the end of 6) so they need a clean plot line that moves forward rather quickly. I think it would be disjointed to attempt to bring in a 4,000 year old character who has all this history and have the first movie in the new series not even be able to scratch the surface.

Imagine they're fighting some unusual Sith presence. And we're all like 'Shiat, It's Darth Farking Revan, ya'll!' and the characters in the film don't know it, and the plebeians around us don't know it. It just gets wonky.

IDK where everyone gets that there hasn't been Star Wars for a while; Star Wars has been alive and well until the massacre that is Disney.

the possible story line I heard was that the inquisitors (yes, plural) have been working for the empire all this time and after the emperor and vader were defeated, the inquisitors took control of the empire.

which would be a kick ass story, especially if it included characters such as Mara Jade........

Personally I'm more intrigued by the speculation that the new villain may be Revan. Judging from the leaked photo of the Dark Jedi with his crossguard Lightsaber, the mask that he wears looks an awful lot like Darth Revan's mask. I'm not well versed in Old Republic lore but from what I've read on Wookieepedia his fate seems to be a mystery. Revan may have found a way to live for thousands of years before reappearing again in The Force Awakens.

Does this sound plausible? What do you guys think?

No.

I know it sounds abit out there but would you care to elaborate why you don't think its not plausible?

He comes with a ton of back story that wouldn't fit well into a new film.

I think with 7 they need to really pull people back in quickly. We've been without Star Wars for a while now (especially since the end of 6) so they need a clean plot line that moves forward rather quickly. I think it would be disjointed to attempt to bring in a 4,000 year old character who has all this history and have the first movie in the new series not even be able to scratch the surface.

Imagine they're fighting some unusual Sith presence. And we're all like 'Shiat, It's Darth Farking Revan, ya'll!' and the characters in the film don't know it, and the plebeians around us don't know it. It just gets wonky.

IDK where everyone gets that there hasn't been Star Wars for a while; Star Wars has been alive and well until the massacre that is Disney.

It's been almost a decade since the last film came out. And it's been 30 years since the film that immediately precedes this one came out.

While much has happened in the Star Wars universe, not all of it has been viewed by the public so you have to assume that a large number of people who will see the film aren't up to date on everything going on. You have to act as if they know nothing.

Rather than Revan himself I think someone that found one of his hoocrons would work better.

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

His.... sister? Wait....

... his son? He will bring balance to the Force, and if not, there is yet another... his sister!

His.... sister? Wait....

We wants it, we needs it. Must have the Force. They stole it from us. Sneaky little ewokses. Wicked, tricksy, false!

To be honest it's less how cheesy the movie would be, and how stupidly cheesy and mary sue the Emperor became in the EU.

Fair enough, no argument there.

Also, speaking about ewokes and the forest moon of Endor, do you think that the clip of the bad guy with the light saber in the winter wonder land clip is on Endor?

Cause if so, that could mean that Disney has come to terms that the destruction of the death star above the orbit of the moon means ecological disaster for the ewokes.

I personally am for Endor undergoing the equivalent of a nuclear winter for many decades due to the number of heavy large impactors on the surface.

Would be kinda grim, but as long as it is a mention and forget scene, like the slaughtering of jawas and c3po burning their bodies, itwwouldn't be out of place.