The "Star Wars" galaxy is a classic throwback; it's a simple story about good vs. evil. The Jedi are good and the Empire is evil. Easy, right?
But how do worshippers of the Dark Side and their followers keep their numbers up? In six movies they've taken a pretty serious beating. Why would any one want to join them, especially after the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and the destruction of the second Death Star?
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams expanded on this thought a bit when asked at Disney's D23 Expo how The First Order has emerged from the rubble of the Empire.
"I do think the sort of obvious answer is that the Force has a light side and a dark side," Abrams said via the L.A. Times. "It's not just one thing. It's not just that the Force is good, the Force is...it can be a very dangerous thing. It can be a very seductive thing. I think that the story clearly requires a conflict of some sort."
That seems like a reasonable answer. Just look around you in the real world and you'll find countless examples of people using power for both good and evil. Why wouldn't that same concept extend to the Force?
Another reason The First Order exists, according to Abrams, is because Empire loyalists would naturally cling to any remnant of the old world during the ensuing upheaval of civil war.
"If people were rejecting the dark side somehow entirely it would be a hard thing to figure out what we would be up against. It was part of the, what felt like an authentic and true inevitability of what might of happened in the years post-Return of the Jedi."
Abrams appears to have constructed a realistic political machine as a new evil organization in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Fans will get to see The First Order in action when the film hits theaters on Dec. 18.