'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Shines A Rey Of Light On Some New Footage

When George Lucas set out to cast the original 1977 Star Wars, he yanked the young Mark Hamill out of total obscurity to play the hero of his space opera saga. The casting was a double-edged lightsaber for all involved – Hamill never managed to escape the massive shadow of his first major character, but Luke Skywalker himself, the whiny brat who transforms into a conflicted warrior, benefits from being played by an unknown. There is no baggage to this guy. He's just a fresh face, living on a backwater planet. Luke Skywalker was never a "Mark Hamill character." He's just Luke, farm boy and future Jedi Knight.

Director J.J. Abrams was surely seeking a similar energy when he cast Daisy Ridley as Rey, one of the leads of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We still don't know much about this mysterious character and the fact that no one outside of a scant few knows what a Daisy Ridley performance looks like means we can't even make a professional guess. However, a new featurette focusing on Rey has arrived, giving us a new pile of evidence to sift through.

There aren't any real spoilers in this video. Very little here is anything that you couldn't have guessed yourself based on imagery we've already seen in previous trailers and TV spots. Still, with The Force Awakens less than two weeks away, some of you may have put yourselves on total media blackout. If so, click away. This is your Super Minor Spoiler warning.

Anyway, the featurette, which originally aired on ABC Family:

That video confirms much of what we already knew. Rey is a scavenger on the lonely desert world of Jakku. She's tough and independent. She rocks those desert fashions. She's more than capable to going on an adventure, thank you very much.

Here's some food for thought (and this is entirely speculation on our part). Both Rey and her newfound adventuring partner Finn are played by British actors, but John Boyega broke out an American accent for his performance. Ridley has retained her natural English accent for the part, which is a very interesting choice for a heroic character in a Star Wars movie. In the past, especially in the original trilogy, posh accents have been indicators of villainy, with most the Imperial characters speaking with British accents. So The Force Awakens is doing one of two things: it's attempting to prove that not all English people are instantly villainous jerks in the Star Wars saga or it's a hint that Rey's mysterious family come from the "wrong" side of the war. After all, there's surely a reason why we haven't learned her last name.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens on December 18, 2015. All of your Rey questions should have answers by then.