Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm for a whopping $4 billion and announced their plans for a new "Star Wars" trilogy, fans have been racking their brains trying to connect the dots. How, they've been asking, does "The Force Awakens" connect to all that came before it? Director J.J. Abrams has offered few hints in the intervening time, mostly letting fans discuss the possibilities amongst themselves with wild theories and speculation.
Although that code of silence continued in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Abrams did provide a slight hint as to what has been going on in the galaxy following the events in "Return of the Jedi."
"Any good story has conflict," Abrams said. "And if all were rosy 30-some years post-Jedi, we would be hard-pressed to find an interesting story to tell."
"He's not ready to reveal the political layout of the galaxy in The Force Awakens just yet, but what we know so far: There is no peace in the heavens," EW's Anthony Breznican wrote.
We know that after the death of the Emperor, a faction of the Empire broke off and assumed power under the name The First Order. It's possible that Andy Serkis' character is their leader, and we know that Domnhall Gleason's character is a general in their ranks.
It's reasonable to expect that the Resistance has been fighting The First Order for much of the past 30 years and that that conflict continues in "The Force Awakens." The particulars and specifics may be unknown, but the broad strokes seem clear: civil war still exists in the galaxy. Our new protagonists will likely be directly inserted into this conflict once the new film hits theaters in Dec. 18.
Until then, have fun trying to further connect the dots.
