With the reveal of the desert home of Rey being the planet Jakku, and not Tatooine like many thought, questions have begun flying over the history of this new planet. Hit the jump to see our report on rumors concerning the history of Jakku and some elements of the backstory for two characters in The Force Awakens.

Well in the period between the announcement of Jakku and DICE’s reveal of the Battle of Jakku DLC someone posted on reddit about what they were told was the backstory of Jakku. The post can be found HERE but I will post some of the highlights below.

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW

1. Jakku was deserted until a massive battle caused the Star Destroyer we saw in the teaser to crash.

2. Max von Sydow was the commander of the Star Destroyer and his crew were the first settlers on the planet.

3. Sydow is angry at the Empire/First Order for abandoning him and his men in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor.

4. Sydow provides help to Rey and Finn before they leave the planet.

5. Because of the scavenging potential Jakku has become a hive of scum and villainy like Mos Eisley.

The reddit user also posted some information on Kylo Ren’s backstory, referring to him as the equivalent of the “false idols” that plagued the Early Medieval European church. Kylo Ren is claiming to be Darth Vader and through his use of the Force more and more members of the First Order are starting to believe him. In the film Kylo makes a power grab to take control of the First Order and his brutal tactics are part of what leads Finn to desert.

It’s also worth noting that the Battle of Jakku will be early DLC for the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront game. In the trailer for Star Wars Battlefront there was a much debated scene.

Not only do we have Boba Fett, one of the Star Wars community’s most beloved characters, alive (Jonathan Rinzler already confirmed in the past that Fett lives). But we also have the question of exactly what planet this is on. On one end we have a sandcrawler, a vehicle deeply associated with Tatooine. But on the right side we have an identical copy of the crashed Star Destroyer of Jakku. This poses the question of whether or not this scene is meant to be on Jakku or Tatooine. We also know that Jakku had to have a land battle since there are no space battles on the launch version of Star Wars Battlefront. Regardless of one’s theories on the matter, there is a lot that has been given to us to speculate on.

EDIT: DICE already confirmed that the planet from the trailer footage is Tatooine.

If these rumors are true, they provide a lot of interesting backstory to a couple of our more mysterious characters in The Force Awakens. And they sound really plausible matching with other rumors we’ve heard about the movie before.

Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that our own Cantina member Yoda 2 revealed the name of the dessert planet months before Celebration. He also revealed some other bits that could be of interest, since his credibility was confirmed. Here’s what he posted at our message boards The Cantina on March 9, 2015:

Jakah (spelling?) is the name of the desert planet not Tatooine. (CONFIRMED) C3PO has both gold legs but a dark gun metal colored arm now. Poe has big face scar. (CONFIRMED) Kylo Ren’s mask is a relic. There might be multiple masks he wears. Kylo Ren character poster has new Empire icon that looks more like an astrix *. (CONFIRMED) Kylo poster has tons of stormtroops behind him. (CONFIRMED) Already known but Christie is the Chrome Trooper. R2 looks pretty much the same just more beat up. Chewie looks same just little older with some grey hair. (CONFIRMED) Rey looked the same as her teaser trailer costume with no hat. (CONFIRMED) Rey’s hair was pulled back only saw from the front. (CONFIRMED) Finn was wearing leather jacket and pants like one of Luke’s. (CONFIRMED)

And here are some bits that Yoda 2 saw about Rey’s home (the AT-AT wreckage) on Jakku, but this time from the inside:

All I can say is I saw what I saw and it was the only thing I saw. It was a set photo from Pinewood. It was the inside of an AT-AT with tons of stuff in it like someones living in it, dirt floor like its buried partially into the ground and a hammock that kind of resembled Chewie’s bandoleer. Also it was a fully finished set and it was lit as if light was coming from outside. So the photo was taken most likely during the filming of it.

You can share your thoughts on these matters in the comments below or in The Cantina.

UPDATE!

EricHizzo, the person who posted this on reddit, joined our boards and shared where he got this info from. Here’s what he said:

The info comes from an author who will be writing a new novel that has yet to be announced. The plot is about the aftermath of the Battle of Jakku, more specifically the first settlers. Again, the first settlers are the surviving crew of a crashed Star Destroyer and MvS was the commanding officer of the Star Destroyer. The crew are stranded. The ‘first responders’ aren’t interested in rescuing anyone. They are there to loot. The novel is a story about MvS’ crew surviving against the elements and hostile pirates that show up shortly after the battle.

Also while Eric was pretty confident about the Max von Sydow’s part of the story, he expressed his doubts about the accuracy of the Kylo Ren part. Still, here’s what he said:

If this guy was hired to write a story about Jakku, not sure how he knows about the Kylo Ren stuff. Writer’s are a gossipy bunch so maybe he knows someone who was hired to write a Ren novel. Assuming the Ren stuff is true, I have some clarification for you guys. Ren is literally claiming to be Darth Vader, in the flesh. He is saying I am Darth Vader, I survived the Death Star explosion (the audience knows this is not true). Ren is a very mysterious character. He has almost no back story. The first scene of the movie is Finn finding out he has been promoted to Ren’s elite unit of storm troopers. They immediately leave on a mission. I don’t know any details about the mission but this mission is the scene from the second trailer – night time with Ren in action. Apparently Finn sees Ren in action (brutal, violent, no empathy), is like F this, and deserts. That is the beginning of the movie.

This last part actually fits pretty good with a report made by MSW back in November, about a possible line from the movie. According to the report, Daisy Ridley’s character is being captured and brought to Kylo Ren, when she says: “You’ll never be as powerful as Darth Vader!”

You can read EricHizzo’s whole post (including some speculations on his behalf) in The Cantina HERE.

As always treat this as a RUMOR and take it with the usual amount of salt. 🙂