26 Unanswered Questions Of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens': We Have The Answers

This isn't so much unanswered as it is unclear in the film. The movie gives us some answers but the whole story must be filled in by the books like Star Wars: Aftermath and Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary.

This is another question that is partially answered in the film, but I thought you might want to know some of the extra details revealed in the books:

Remember the second teaser trailer, the one that reuses the Luke Skywalker voiceover from the original trilogy? There is a shot of Lupita Nyong'o's character Maz Kanata handing over the Skywalker lightsaber to General Leia. From what we see from the background of the shot, the scene appears to take place in the Resistance headquarters. Yet in the movie Maz is never seen in the war room with Leia, and has no interaction with the former Princess. So what happened to this scene?

Possible Explanation: If it's a deleted scene, it potentially confirms that Maz survived the attack on her castle. Its not uncommon for shots to appear in a trailer and not be in the final film, especially shots from early trailers when a final cut is far from locked. But the shot in the trailer features a completely computer generated performance, which is costly to produce. It's been widely reported that Abrams did secret reshoots for Force Awakens in his Bad Robot offices, and some of the reshoots apparently involved reworking the scenes in which Maz appears — so it's likely that something got changed along the way.

Our sources tell us that in the shooting script, Maz left with the Resistance since her castle was left completely destroyed and presented Leia with the lightsaber in the war room.

Hey wait a minute, Rey somehow knows how to use the Jedi mind trick minutes after discovering she has Force powers? That might be your first reaction, but I believe Rey's vision establishes that she trained as a youngling at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy before Ben Solo got turned by Snoke and led a massacre of the students.

We aren't sure about her age, but the child abandoned on Jakku (played by Cailey Fleming) appears to be somewhere between 5 and 7 years old. She clearly remembers some of her teachings, using the Jedi mind trick on a stormtrooper to escape custody on Starkiller base.

Earlier in the film she says she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth, which seems to suggest her early memories were suppressed by someone with Force powers (likely whomever abandoned her on Jakku). Her memories seem to return as Kylo Ren tries to use the Force mind read to delve into her head.

I think that would be the most obvious answer. Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy has said that the Star Wars Saga films will be the story of the Skywalkers. And I think she means the new stories with new characters, which obviously goes beyond Luke and Leia. Kylo Ren is obviously part of the Skywalker bloodline, and it would be easy to assume the new Star Wars trilogy will be about the redemption of that character (if they are following the franchise's formula, which judging by this film, is the case). But I'm also willing to bet there is also a good guy in the new generation that shares the Skywalker bloodline. But that could mean she could be either Luke or Leia and Han's child.

Let's look at what we know: She very likely trained as a Jedi Padawan with Luke Skywalker before the Jedi Temple was attacked by the Knights of Ren. Let's ignore the fact that she thinks Luke Skywalker is a myth when Finn brings his name up (her memories were probably suppressed, probably using the Force) and that she knows legend of the famous Smuggler Han Solo but clearly doesn't remember him from childhood. She was abandoned by her family on Jakku.

Why would whomever saved her in the Jedi Academy massacre just abandon her on a desert planet? Probably to put her out of reach from the Dark Side by hiding her where no one can find her and where no one even know she exists. This probably explains why Kylo doesn't recognize her, he probably thinks whomever she is was killed during the Jedi Academy attack.

And we also know that Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber called to her. Maz even makes a point of saying that the lightsaber belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father Anakin Skywalker before him, "and now it's calling for you." So that must mean she's a Skywalker, right?

When Kylo is interrogating her, he looks into her mind and says "You dream of a place" and begins to describe a small island like the one she later finds Luke on. Maybe she's not dreaming but able to see where her father is? Or maybe she saw the metaphorical X on the piece of BB-8's treasure map and knew that it was an island?

If she is a Skywalker: Why doesn't Han Solo or Princess Leia recognize her? Or do they? Han is quick to offer Rey a job on the Millennium Falcon after he learns her name, but later doesn't seem too overly concerned when she was abducted by the First Order.

When the Resistance returns back from blowing up Starkiller base, Leia walks right past Chewbacca directly over to Rey and hugs her never having met the girl before. Why wouldn't Leia comfort Solo's best bud? Do they know something we don't?

Also it's interesting that Leia sends Rey to the island that might have Luke, and doesn't make the trip herself. Maybe its an unsafe mission for the General, but then why not send an accomplished high-ranking Resistance member?

Yes, Kathleen Kennedy did say the Star Wars Saga is about the Skywalker family, but the sequel trilogy already has Kylo Ren (who is of the Skywalker bloodline). So what if Rey isn't Luke, Leia or Obi-Wan's kid? When I talked to director J.J. Abrams before seeing the film, I asked him if the movie would explore the possibility that anyone can have the power. Abrams told me that while he would "never presume to question anything George Lucas says is canon in Star Wars" he believes "the Force has always seemed to me to be more inclusive and stronger than" bloodlines and midi-chlorians.

I'm not someone who quite understands the science of the Force. To me Star Wars was never about science fiction — it was a spiritual story. And it was more of a fairytale in that regard. For me when I heard Obi-Wan say that the Force surrounds us and binds us all together, there was no judgement about who you were. This was something that we could all access. Being strong with the force didn't mean something scientific, it meant something spiritual. It meant someone who could believe, someone who could reach down to the depths of your feelings and follow this primal energy that was flowing through all of us. I mean, thats what was said in that first film! And there I am sitting in the theater at almost 11 years old and that was a powerful notion. And I think this is what your point was, we would like to believe that when s*** gets serious, that you could harness that Force I was told surrounds not just some of us but every living thing. And so, I really feel like the assumption that any character needs to have inherited a certain number of midi-chlorians or needs to be part of a bloodline, it's not that I don't believe that as part of the canon, I'm just saying that at 11 years old, that wasn't where my heart was. And so I respect and adhere to the canon but I also say that the Force has always seemed to me to be more inclusive and stronger than that.

That all said, I do feel like Rey is related to someone we know. And I'm sure we'll find out in the next movie.

When Rey touches the lightsaber, she experiences a vision. The events shown in this vision whiz by fast, so you may have missed something. As we mentioned earlier in the Maz question, the vision originally showed more about how the lightsaber went from Luke's hand in Empire Strikes Back to Maz's castle, but the final film dialed this down.

Rey ends up in the hallway from The Empire Strikes Back where Luke once faced Darth Vader. You can hear Luke Skywalker scream "No!!!!!!" if you listen carefully in the background. The Force Awakens official novelization adds that Rey sees figures in a lightsaber duel far down the hallway. The initial cut of the film had Rey run towards them and seeing a new shot, different angle, of the Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader confrontation. This is actually the reason why Empire Strikes Back versions of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader were released in the Force Awakens action figure line. Apparently the shot was cut later in the editing process.

Back to the vision, Rey sees Luke Skywalker lay his metal hand on R2-D2 as fire and ashes fill the background and foreground. This obviously suggests a scene after Kylo Ren has destroyed Luke's new Jedi Academy, right before Luke decides to go into exile. We see a scene of bodies scattered on the ground in the pouring rain with Kylo Ren having just killed one of them while a group of similarly dressed people stand next to him, presumably the Knights of Ren. Note that he is the only one with a lightsaber in this shot.

We then see Rey as a young girl (age 5-7) being left behind on Jakku with what looks to be Unkar Plutt. Note that she is wearing an outfit that looks like something a young Padawan might wear, which suggests she was a student at Luke's new Jedi Academy. And then the last shot features her in the snowy forest at night.

In the novelization, Rey hears a voice behind her say "Stay here, I'll come back for you." She whirls around trying to find the voice through the trees. "I'll come back sweetheart, I promise." She says "I'm here, right here, where are you?" No response. And then just like the movie, a figure comes at her — it's Kylo Ren, a premonition of the confrontation she has later in the film. She falls back and is back on the basement floor of Maz's castle.

During this sequence we also hear Yoda, a new recording by Frank Oz, talking about how the Force surrounds us. And near the end we hear Obi-Wan Kenobi say "Rey, you've taken your first steps." This voice over is actually cleverly edited with Alec Guinness saying the name "Rey" followed by a new recording of Ewan McGregor saying "you've taken your first steps." You can read more about how those voiceovers came about here.

This was my biggest complaint coming out of the world premiere screening. How does R2-D2 just wake up? It just feels like an all-too-convenient moment for him to reactivate from low power mode.

My Initial Theories: The more I thought about this unexplained moment, the more I found reasons for it. Here are some possibilities:

There's also the question of why R2-D2 had the piece of the map to Luke Skywalker's location. Seems a bit too convenient right? Or maybe Luke planted the map there so that one day people could come find him. Does that mean that he gave the other piece of the map to Max Von Sydow's character? Was he ordered to only reveal the map if the Dark Side rose up again? Another possibility is that he was looking for the long-lost first Jedi temple before the massacre, and R2 has the pieces he uncovered before skipping town.

The Official Answer: Sadly, the real answer is not very satisfying. Screenwriter Michael Arndt has said that the idea was that R2 plugged into the information base of the Death Star, "and that's how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are." Director J.J. Abrams explains the reason why R2 suddenly awakens with the information:

BB-8 comes up and says something to him, which is basically, 'I've got this piece of a map, do you happen to have the rest?' The idea was, R2 who has been all over the galaxy, is still in his coma, but he hears this. And it triggers something that would ultimately wake him up. While it may seem, you know, completely lucky and an easy way out, at that point in the movie, when you've lost a person, desperately, and somebody you hopefully care about is unconscious, you want someone to return.

Again, not really a satisfying answer. It should also be pointed out that C-3PO clearly knows BB-8 (when the protocol droid sees him outside the Resistance base, he greets him). This makes sense because they have been both working for the Resistance for some time. But why is it that BB-8 has never seen R2-D2? Seems like a bit of a plot hole?

BB-8 tries to wake up the old droid but C-3PO informs him that it is unlikely that he has the rest of the map. I guess this supposedly sparks R2-D2 to analyze his backups for possible info. The fact that he wakes up right as they return from Starkiller base still seems too convenient. And why has the Resistance never tried to get the information from R2-D2 before?

In Rey's vision/flashback, we see Kylo Ren destroy Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Academy with "the Knights of Ren." But who is this organization? The only thing J.J. Abrams has said on record about the group is this:

He is a character who came to the name Kylo Ren when he joined a group called Knights of Ren.

Adam Driver gives a little more insight to the LATimes:

It was a group that existed before him, that he was a part of. Their place within everything is maybe more of a satellite group than I would say ... This is really tricky.

It should be noted that Kylo is not Ben's given name, it is most likely a combination of his family names sKYwalker and soLO.

Finn refers to Kylo Ren as "Ren" and not Kylo which seems to suggest he could be the only remaining member of the group. Since we know Snoke convinces Ben Solo to join the dark side, maybe he is one of the other members of the Knights of Ren? Nope. In the movie, Snoke tells Kylo that he is the master of the Knights of Ren. I'm sure we'll either find out more about the group in future films or in the upcoming books.

Some Star Wars fans believe that Snoke is Darth Plagueis, a character mentioned in the Star Wars prequels. The filmmakers were asked about the possibility at Comic-Con, where J.J. Abrams denied the character's presence in the film. But fans are not willing to take the filmmaker's response as a definitive answer as Abrams has lied in the past to protect secrets (i.e. Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness). Fans also point out the similarities between the soundtrack for Snoke and the soundtrack for the scene in which Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Plagueis.

According to Palpatine, "Darth Plagueis was a dark lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise. He could influence the midichlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying." While Plagueis had the ability to cheat death, Palpatine claimed to have killed Plagueis in his sleep. George Lucas has said that Plagueis was a Muun, a thin, narrow-faced species of alien with a flair for finances. A Star Wars book, Darth Plagueis, told the story of Plagueis' backstory but it is no longer considered Star Wars canon.

At the Force Awakens junket, IGN asked J.J. Abrams why didn't Leia become a Jedi after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Abrams explains it's a question that he, co-writer Lawrence Kasdan and even George Lucas discussed.

It was a great question, and one we talked about quite a bit even with Carrie [Fisher]. If there is 'another' why not take advantage of this natural Force strength this character had? And one of the answers was that it was simply a choice she made, that her decision to run the rebellion and ultimately this Resistance, and consider herself a General as opposed to a Jedi, it was simply a choice that she took. Not that there isn't any regret that should could have and didn't. But clearly we've seen and we do again, she is clearly Force strong.

So there you have it, she chose to be a General rather than a Jedi but that doesn't mean she can't progress her Force abilities in the future if she wanted to.

This isn't a question I had, as I took it at face value. But /Film editor Angie Han posed the question to me and I found the discussion was worth some exploration. In the film, Captain Phasma makes it clear that FN-2187 passed all the tests and scored highly in simulations with no indication of subordinate behavior.

The Visual Dictionary notes that FN-2187 "lacks the combat zeal or submission to authority evident in his squadmates" but "keeps his misgivings well hidden." And of course when he witnesses the reality of war on Jakku and the death of his squadmate, he finds himself unable to participate and thats when he decides to make a run for it and save captured resistance pilot Poe Dameron.

But the bigger question is why was he unable to deal with the violence of war? Could it be that seeing it in person with real people brought back subconscious memories from his childhood? It's mentioned in the movie that he has never known his name. I'm wondering if his instincts in the Jakku massacre stem from events in his early former life before he was abducted and brainwashed.

The book Before The Awakening answers some of these questions. The mission on Jakku is Finn's second real mission in the field and seeing real civilians being slaughtered was too much for him. Finn basically he aces the simulations because he knows his "enemy." It's the Republic. He's been taught that since childhood. He starts to really have doubts, and then the sims start incorporating civilians and he can't justify shooting at them. He tries to save a fellow stormtrooper (the same one who dies in Force Awakens) in a simulation and Phasma reprimands him.

Some casual fans of the Star Wars series might be wondering why Finn is not a clone? Wasn't that the whole point of the Star Wars prequels? For those people, there is a throwaway line in the movie to acknowledge that the First Order Stormtroopers are no longer clones. During a disagreement between Kylo and General Hux, Ren says that maybe since Hux's brainwashed stormtroopers aren't working out so well, and suggests they could maybe bring back the clones. In Force Awakens, it is established that General Hux chose to use a collection of stormtroopers he trained from childhood, in many cases stealing the children from their families, and while it's not explicitly stated, it's suggested the First Order brainwashed the new children troopers.

So why was the clone army abandoned? The best answer I could find for this question comes from Rukh:

After the Clone Wars ended (Episode 3), Palpatine needed to solidify his power to reorganize the Old Republic into the new Galactic Empire. To do this his needed a much larger army (more than the existing clones) and also needed to generate popular support, so he instigated a new propaganda campaign to instill loyalty and patriotism by turning many of the higher learning centers into Imperial Academies (Luke Skywalker was attempting to apply to such an academy so that he could get off of Tattooine) where regular humans were educated and simultaneously trained to serve in the Imperial military as officers, technicians, pilots, and soldiers. In the roughly two decades between Episode 3 and Episode 4 (the original Star Wars) the majority of Stormtroopers were normal humans that graduated from Imperial academies and recieved advanced training from one of the Imperial Military Centers, like the facilities on Cardia.

The clone army was something that was abandoned well before J.J. Abrams got involved in the series. The original expanded universe (which is now discounted only as "Legends") also established the move from clones to humans. The change that more recently got introduced came in the animated television series Star Wars Rebels, which established that children were now being brainwashed and trained to be stormtroopers.

Supreme Leader Snoke tells General Hux to bring Kylo Ren to him so that he can finish his training, and we learn that Hux has taken off from Starkiller Base before the explosive stuff goes down. But what about Kylo Ren? Last we saw he was seriously injured and left bleeding in the snow as the weapon began to activate.

We can only assume that Hux took off early to retrieve Kylo. After all, it seems like Kylo Ren will be the Darth Vader of this sequel trilogy, so I expect we haven't seen the last of him. Also, the official novelization, which is also considered canon, says that Hux picks up Kylo with some troopers and they were able to escape Starkiller base before it blows up.

You might have wondered how it was that Rey was able to understand both BB-8 and Chewbacca's native languages. The below screenshot from the Star Wars book Rey's Survival Guide gives us the answer.