'Star Wars Episode VII' Villains Could Rewrite Franchise History

Rumors surrounding the villains of Star Wars Episode VII have been running rampant since before the cast was announced. Could Han Solo and Princess Leia's kid become a Sith, much like in the Expanded Universe? Would Luke Skywalker himself turn to the dark side? When the cast was announced, we examined the photo trying to guess who the bad guy would be. Oscar Isaac? Adam Driver? We don't know.

And honestly, we still don't know for sure. But proven Star Wars scooper Latino Review has dropped a bomb of potential information about the Star Wars 7 villains. It's a massive spoiler, that builds into a few other even bigger spoilers in regards to the plot, so beware.

Let's start with the light spoilers, this according to Latino Review.

Remember this article I wrote last week? It's called, Why Does 'Star Wars' Need The Inquisitor If It Already Has Darth Vader? In it, I talked to Star Wars Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni about the main bad guy of Rebels, the Inquisitor. He told me the Inquisitor was just a pawn of Darth Vader, a soldier to do the heavy lifting. Here's a brief quote:

So many years [after The Clone Wars], [Jedi] are so few and far between that I don't think [Darth Vader] would follow up every lead. Because one of the things that's muddled the whole operation, in my mind, is kids being born that can use the Force. The Emperor and Vader don't really want them around either. But they're so unnoticeable, you needed a group of hunters, attack dogs. And so we have an Inquisitor that goes out and hunts these guys down.

So the Inquisitor, in Rebels, is someone who uses the Force, but isn't a Sith. They serve the Sith. Which leads us to Episode VII.

Medium spoilers begin:

According to Latino Review, the Inquisitors are the villains of Star Wars Episode VII. "The Inquisitors are defenders of the Sith Order and they've been around for a long time. Just how long is what turns Episode VII's story on it's head."

That's a level one spoiler, now we get into even bigger spoilers.

When Han Solo, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and Chewbacca finally find the missing Luke Skywalker (remember these plot spoilers?) he's been captured by the Inquisitors. (Which actors play them, we don't know yet. Driver? Gwendoline Christie?) Once he escapes, he tells his friends their story which leads to a...FLASHBACK. Yes, the rumors are reportedly true. The first flashback in Star Wars film history.

More spoilers. Huge spoilers.

In that flashback, Carrie Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd (remember she was rumored to be cast?) would play/provide the voice of a young Princess Leia, showing a time where the Inquisitors were being controlled by Darth Vader. Yes, according to Latino Review, Darth Vader does appear in Star Wars Episode VII.

Which brings us all the way back to Star Wars Rebels. Filoni gave us more information on what the Inquisitor does in the show:

He finds you, he analyzes you, even by fighting against them, saber to saber, he's learning about you. Who taught you, where you came from, how old you are. Sometimes what your name is. Because they have all the records and he's meticulously studied them.

But wait, do these Inquisitors have a leader? According to Badass Digest, yes.

There's a main Inquisitor villain (I don't know his name) Want to know what he looks like? He wears a black robe. His eyes are deep red. And half of his face is metal. He's a cyborg. That was his hand in the picture JJ Abrams shared with the note about A Force For Change.

J.J. Abrams revealed the main Star Wars 7 villain himself.

(Update: Indie Revolver has posted one more Star Wars piece which contains an image that links all of this. However, it's so out there we suspect it could be fake. But maybe it's not and if it's not, you can't go back. There's also a detailed description of the aforementioned Inquisitor character. Big, big spoilers there.)

If this is all true, it's a pretty radical departure from what we know about Star Wars. If Darth Vader was puppeteering an army of Inquisitors while also dealing with Luke Skywalker, and those Inquisitors survived, it means the Rebellion didn't win at the end of Return of the Jedi. The enemy remained. That changes everything we've ever thought about Star Wars. It does what a great sequel should do: takes the story you're expecting and flips it on its head.

So is it true? All the pieces fit. It stays in canon, while also expanding it. The story of the Skywalkers isn't all that's happening. More and more layers are being revealed we're going to explore them.

You made it this far, so what do you think about all this? Do you like the idea of Inquisitors in Star Wars Episode VII? How do you feel about a potential flashback?