Star Wars Episode VII: 30 Essential Elements

"I have a bad feeling about this"

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: Having been spoken in every Star Wars film to date, it was already a running gag by the time Lucas got round to making the prequels. To not continue that tradition with this new film would be almost sacrilege. If we don’t hear it once in the new film, we’re just going to assume it the translation of one of Artoo’s beeps or Chewie’s roar.

A bar scene

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope

Why It's Essential: More than just being a public scene filled with unknown quantities, and even more than being just a cool throwback to that most iconic of moments in the Mos Eisley Cantina, a bar scene would be the perfect moment to showcase the eclectic mix of intergalactic species from all over the Star Wars universe. Not to mention it would allow for some nice cameos of existing species we already know.

Amputations

Why It's Essential: Thanks to the neatly contrived way that lightsabers instantly cauterise any wound, amputating limbs is about as bloody as Star Wars gets without the need for any actual blood. And when it’s not some poor villainous scum at a bar getting his limbs lopped off, it’s usually the losing Jedi in a lightsaber duel, which has a dehumanising effect, beginning a gradual descent to become more machine than man.

Authority (and rebellion)

Why It's Essential: It’s a universal theme throughout all of the Star Wars films – that continuing greed for unlimited power and how it leads to the moral corruption, followed by the plucky heroes who rebel against the establishment for the greater good. In essence, we need to see a daring underdog story again.

Stormtroopers (and Clone Troopers)

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: Following the defeat of the Emperor, you have to wonder what happens to the Galactic Empire next, as well it’s army. So, even if we don’t get to see the actual badly-aimed blaster shootings of our soldiers-in-white again, we at least need some kind of explanation as to what happened to them all.

Force-choking

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: We need a strong Sith presence in Episode VII in order to continue our epic battle between good and evil and, while we love the Force Lightning effect, that’s a grand manoeuvre that can be saved for Episode VIII (if we’re not already getting ahead of ourselves). So that leaves us with some dark-side Force Choking. Preferable mid-air too, because that always looks cool.

Scoundrels

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: For all the high-stakes seriousness of galactic warfare, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian gave us two rogue heroes who got to inject a lot of charm and bad-boy danger into the mix – something that was distinctly missing from the more pompous prequels. In order for Episode VII to work, Star Wars really needs to get some of that swagger back into its step.

Space smugglers

Why It's Essential: In a universe populated by Jedis, Siths, politicians, soldiers and monarchs, there’s something incredibly exciting about the frequent allusions to a criminal underworld rife throughout the galaxy. Just knowing that there are smuggling routes and spaceships that operate under the radar opens up an angle to Star Wars that has never been fully explored.

Force Ghosts

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: How else will we be able to see some of our favourite – now dead – characters? Here’s hoping for some more obscure Force Ghosts too rather than the ones we’ve already seen. Would it kill them to feature a ghostly Kit Fisto cameo?

Tatooine

Why It's Essential: Not only does the remote world of Tatooine help to provide context to the galaxy large by being the planet farthest from the bright centre of the universe, but it holds a great deal of significance to the key players in the Star Wars universe, being the original home of Anakin, Luke AND C-3PO. A return to this barren landscape would be a great link back to the preceding films.

Chewbacca

Why It's Essential: This walking carpet, in a very real dog-like sense, is Han Solo’s best friend and first mate. We simply can’t have one without the other, and what better way to invoke some original Star Wars nostalgia than to have an ear-splitting Wookiee roar every now and then?

Romance

Why It's Essential: Incestual complications aside, every good epic saga needs to have a love element to round things out. The constant squabbling between Han and Leia paved the way for a classic mismatched romance between the two, while Anakin’s feelings for Padmé upped the stakes in the prequels, so we need another new couple to root for. Just make sure that we get some better romantic dialogue this time though. No more “haunted kisses becoming a scar”, thank you.

Long odds

Why It's Essential: Han Solo might not want anyone to tell him the odds, but that’s only because, in every Star Wars movie, they are so slim that there’s practically a mini space-miracle in every act. And that’s part of the joy – it’s a universal theme of each episode that the little guy has to overcome outrageous odds to become a hero and save the day. It’s just not fun if the challenges are easy…

John Williams themes

Why It's Essential: As much as everything else that’s great about the Star Wars world, the soundtrack to the entire saga consists of some of the greatest, most-epic music ever set to film. Happily, John Williams is back for Episode VII so, along with the main theme, we should expect some marvellous set-piece themes to match newer compositions Duel Of Fates and Across The Stars for their magnificence.

Yoda

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: As aliens go, this little green man is one of the most iconic, proving to be a wise old mentor in the original films and an acrobatic warrior in the prequels, but ultimately his death feels a little anti-climactic. With a ghostly appearance at the end of Return Of The Jedi , there’s no reason why the backwards-speaking Jedi Master can’t play a fan-pleasing role in this new film.

Strong female roles

Why It's Essential: Princess Leia set the benchmark for feisty females in the original Star Wars trilogy, matching Han Solo’s sarcastic bickering measure for measure, and it was a mantle happily taken up by Natalie Portman’s Queen Amidala in the prequels. But who’ll be next to carry the galactic female role model torch? We need someone to bring balance to the otherwise male-heavy Force.

A galaxy in need of repairs

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: One thing that set apart the prequels from the originals was a new, shinier visual tone, thanks to slick spaceships and affluent cities. It made sense to see a prosperous galaxy before the Galactic Empire ran everything down, but ultimately it felt too far removed from the Star Wars we already loved which had the charm of worn-in worlds and random space-junk. A return to that look and feel would be most welcome.

Traps

Why It's Essential: Continuing on the theme of long odds, every Star Wars film to date has contained some kind of trap, whether it’s being stuck in a trash compactor or being lured towards a fully-armed and operational battle station. Seeing our characters escape and survive in certain danger is part of the fun in proving how resourceful they can be. More importantly, it gives the opportunity for one character to yell “It’s a trap” at the most obvious moment possible.

Han Solo

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: The original space scoundrel and roguish hero, Han Solo has always been the coolest character in the saga, which is quite some feat considering that a lot of the others wield awesome lightsabers and can CONTROL THINGS WITH THEIR MIND. Come Episode VII, Solo is presumably married to Leia with kids, but we suspect he still has a dry sense of humour and plenty of caddish courage left in him.

Dark Side

Why It's Essential: As much as the political aspect of the prequels was… er… fascinating, we’ve always needed to have our focus drawn to a simple fight between good and evil – the Jedi vs the Sith. While we’ll start Episode VII with no real Sith presence to speak of, real character development and texture can be added by having one of our new Jedis ‘turn’…

Huge creatures

Franchise Appearances: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi

Why It's Essential: Between the Rancor, the sarlacc, that big old monster cat in Attack Of The Clones and, yes, even the big-jawed fish in The Phantom Menace , we all like to enjoy a giant creature set-piece in a Star Wars movie. Plus, it gives the Lucasfilm creatives a chance to go wild on their creature designs – seven eyes, slimy tails and tusks for feet? Sure, why not.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Why It's Essential: Obi-Wan Kenobi has appeared in every episode so far, which makes him as much of an integral cog in the Star Wars machine as hokey religions and ancient weapons. The only question now is: do we want to see a Ewan McGregor Force Ghost?

The Skywalkers

Why It's Essential: Star Wars may consist of thousands of colourful characters but it will always be the Skywalker heritage at the centre of the main saga. So whether it’s an aging Luke passing the Jedi torch on to his own kids, or Hayden Christensen coming back as a translucent blue ghost, the Skywalkers are pivotal to the Star Wars we know and love.

Droids

Why It's Essential: In a world rife with galactic characters and terrifying beasts, the Star Wars universe has always been enriched further by all manner of nuts-and-bolts personalities. From tiny scooter droids to full-blown Super Battle Droids - not to mention IG-88, a bounty-hunting droid assassin – these metal creations are just another way to round-out an already-fit-to-burst galaxy.

Millennium Falcon

Why It's Essential: While the original characters will be back looking a lot older than we last saw them, the Millennium Falcon will still look like the same bucket of bolts as she always did and you can bet that she’ll still be the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. After all, just like all the best loved features in the Star Wars world, she might not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts.

C-3PO

Why It's Essential: George Lucas always said that the original trilogy was told through the eyes of this worrisome gold droid and his smaller, bolder companion, and having these two at the heart of the story helps to put the huge-scale galactic warfare into perspective. Besides, without Threepio, what would we do for comic relief? Bring back Jar Jar?

R2-D2

Why It's Essential: For all the focus on light and dark sides of the Force, moral corruption and er... Trade Federations, this plucky little droid really embodies the true spirit of Star Wars, bravely putting himself in danger to help the cause against all odds. Also, we have a strong suspicion that, if we could understand his beeps and whistles, he'd turn out to be the smartest character in the whole saga.

The Force

Why It's Essential: Because having a film about Jedi Knights that don't use the Force is like having a movie about vampires that don't drink blood or have special powers. Or have fangs and pale skin. And are immune to sunlight and crucifixes. Basically, they're normal people.

Lightsabers

Why It's Essential: The most important of all Star Wars props; these instantly recognisable buzzing blades are an elegant weapon for a more civilised age and it's impossible to think of a Jedi Knight without one. However, like Darth Maul's double-ended lightsaber, it will be interesting to see if we get another new variation of the weapon. Lightdaggers? Lightmachetes? Lightcutlery?

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

Why It's Essential: For all of its faults, one thing that the prequel trilogy established is that the Star Wars saga is primarily about Anakin Skywalker. The whole franchise became a story about the rise, fall and eventual redemption of one powerful Jedi. So the very fact that this film is "Episode VII" suggests that it has to be a continuation of Anakin's story, even though it means him coming back as a Force Ghost.

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