Apparently, Disney/Lucasfilm has laid off a number of employees from the production of ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ and those employees have… well, started blabbing, spilling loads of secrets about the tightly guarded J.J. Abrams franchise re-launcher.

SERIOUSLY, TURN AWAY IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS!

First of all, ‘Star Wars Rebels’ the upcoming Disney XD animated series looks to actually play a much bigger role than anticipated.  Whereas ‘The Clone Wars‘ filled in a bit in between the prequels, it was mostly supplemental, ‘Rebels’ looks to actually be feeding into the new movies in a big way.

The biggest way is that the major villains of the new movies will be called the Inquisitors.  It has already been revealed that the main bad guy of ‘Rebels’ is called The Inquisitor, so presumably the new foes will spring from him.  It’s also been revealed that the Inquisitors are connected to the Sith and have been all along.

The film has already been rumored to open with Luke Skywalker’s hand and lightsabre floating through space and landing on a desert planet.  (Recent rumors are that the hand won’t be there, just the lightsabre.)  Two new younger characters played by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega discover the artifact and set out to find its owner, bringing them into contact with Han Solo and Chewbacca.  Solo reveals that Luke has been missing since ‘Jedi’ and that everyone thought he had gone into hiding, but the truth is revealed– he’s actually been taken captive.

The fact that we’ve never heard of The Inquisitors before necessitates a bit of retconning, with a flashback sequence starring Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher‘s daughter as a young Princess Leia.

Leia isn’t the only character from the original movies that will put in an appearance.  The Inquisitors will be shown to be in service to none other than Darth Vader!  Here is a leaked image (it looks like artwork) that shows a cybernetic Inquisitor holding Darth Vader’s crushed helmet:

Now keep in mind, everything is RUMOR at this point, but of the concepts revealed, what do you think?  Is this a good direction in which to take the franchise?

Source: Latino Review