It’s hard to imagine that Episode VIII will be as familiar as what we saw with The Force Awakens to Empire Strikes Back, but we’ve had a couple of clues of what the next film might include.
The two new additions are confirmed actor Benicio Del Toro in an unknown role (Resistance or First Order?), and unconfirmed actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw. It’s been said her character will be linked with Finn in some sort of way, possibly another Resistance member.
Luke Skywalker training Rey, along with eventually explaining her origin and Ben Skywalker Solo’s fall to the dark side will likely be covered. Potentially revealing the fate of surviving jedi, and Luke begrudgingly starting to train more jedi to combat The First Order.
Rey’s parentage is looking very likely he could be the daughter of Luke Skywalker, mainly because they’ve switched Luke’s son Ben with Han/Leia’s Jacen Solo. I don’t think they’d completely remove aspects from the books, and it’s unlikely Rey is a Solo. Leia would have mentioned it at some point after the death of Han Solo, why hide this from her?
Plus, Kylo Ren would have sensed a sibling (he was able to sense his father) and she pretty much looks exactly as she did as a child. If Luke hid her after the fall of the jedi temple, or much earlier than that it could explain Ben not knowing who she is. Just because the Solo’s had a son and daughter, with the expanded material thrown-out of canon, that’s not a lock.
Originally, Ben had been the child of Luke and Mara Jade, a former pawn of The Empire (Finn potentially taking her place in the universe).
Rey looking exactly like Keira Knightley also isn’t a mistake, as Knightley played the decoy of Padme Amidala, the mother of Luke. Her force powers overwhelming Kylo’s also might speak to being Luke’s child. As Leia might be force sensitive, but never became a jedi herself. There is some suggestion that Luke’s children would be more powerful of the twins.
Her being left on Jakku echoing Luke’s own experience on Tatooine, also shouldn’t be ignored. Rey’s quick force power development, technical and piloting skills seem to mirror Luke, yet again.
Supreme Leader Snoke becoming more of villainous figure is expected, but there’s some hope from myself that they’ll tinker with the needlessly motion-captured character with someone in a costume. Since the piss-poor CGI and design was awful, and didn’t match Andy Serkis’ chilling voice work, taking audiences out of the film.
Seeing him take Kylo’s transformation a bit further could happen as well, maybe even going one more further and having him kill his mother as well.
Kylo Ren likely isn’t the only evil dude working with the First Order, and apart of the dark side. There was a group working with Ren when taking down the new jedi temple, and they could join him in the next installment. It’s apparent that Kylo and First Order need some reinforcements in the sequel, which may or may not include other sith and Mandalorians.
The Knights of Ren likely could be the big threat in the next film.
The Knights of Ren was an organization that existed in the years after the Battle of Endor. Kylo Ren was a member of this group, taking on Ren as a surname as a result. They were affiliated with the First Order and took orders from Supreme Leader Snoke.
Finn revealing himself as force sensitive in the film and in a canonical book, might develop him into getting jedi training as well. However, it might just allow him to have wield weapons better than most. It remains to be seen if Luke will be willing to train others, and who Finn’s family actually is. Some suggestion is that the character is the son of Lando, as the talk of return of him in Episode VIII. That hasn’t been confirmed and we could learn that might have some jedi in his family background.
What else did you see in the film that could be further explored in the 8th film?