A generation ago in a movie theater perhaps not so far away, the original trilogy of the Star Wars  saga ended. Sixteen years later came the generally reviled prequel trilogy, and two years ago came the announcement of a new trilogy, which commences on December 18, 2015.

Then came the fan theories. Leaks placed throughout the Internet, trailer analysis, dissertations on past characters and whatnot cropped up for all and sundry to read.

The Walt Disney Company  acquired Lucasfilm for 4 million dollars and started pre-production on October 30, 2012.  Disney announced that J.J. Abrams is directing the movie, causing much-expected skepticism.  However, as time goes on people accepted the fact that J.J. Abrams is actually a huge improvement over George Lucas in terms of directing.  After all J.J. Abrams  has received praise for his directing of the Star Trek movies. Since this will be the first time a Star Wars film has been produced after 2005, there is potential for this movie to possibly the best out of them all, or at least beat the prequels in terms of goodness.

“I think it will be the best so far, because of J.J. Abrams,” junior Jack Burke said.

“Everything has the potential to beat the prequels,” senior Richard Ohr said.

As for Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars franchise, people were generally happy that the series was going to be continued. Additionally, Disney has the capitol and the resources to create a top-notch movie in a decent amount of time, whereas if Lucasfilm was in charge of production, the movie could have been delayed to 2016.

“Yes, I thought it would be dead if Disney didn’t buy it, so I’m pretty happy that they did,” Burke said.

As December 18th (earlier in some cases) looms upon us and fans scurry to their computers to find anything about the new movie, naturally people start to speculate; they will start to think of theories that are based off of leaks coming from different corners of Internet.  Some of these theories are probable, and some are not quite as plausible.

A theory that holds some weight is the “Darth Jar Jar” theory, which goes back a while (Robot Chicken referenced it in 2010) and was revitalized by a post on Reddit by someone by the username of “Lumpwarro”. It even spawned its own subreddit.

A while ago, an anonymous user on 4chan released leaks (link leads to Reddit) of the movie (some still hold up with current evidence). There is also an Imgur album of leaked concept art. (We’ll link to them on the online version).

There is a current plot compilation at makingstarwars.net, which is the currently prevailing plot outline. (There is also a visual aid version). Other theories that exist pertain the Snoke’s identity (Jar Jar, Darth Plagueis?), among other things.

There is also some belief that Rey is the daughter of Leia and Han Solo (because why not?).

Another common theory making its way around the internet is that Luke Skywalker assumes the role and power of Yoda.  In previous movies Yoda was the best Jedi, the master of Jedi Masters.  Yoda trained notable Jedi such as Count Dooku and most of the Jedi Council. Luke was also his last pupil before he died.  After Yoda dies, there is somewhat of a power vacuum which is filled by Luke Skywalker, who then becomes the most powerful Jedi of his time.  Or so the theory states.

So, what do people want from the new trilogy?

“I want to see some solid storytelling,” Ohr said.

“I want to see lots of gunfights and lots of action,” Burke said.

People want some different things.