A while ago, this bit of art circled the internet – it was eventually discovered to be a recreation of an image made of concept art that has since been leaked, and the belief that the big baddie of Episode VII has since been widely thought of as a sort of cyborg. The rumors even went further suggesting who that character is. BEWARE, major (rumored) SPOILERS will be discussed in this post, so read at your own risk.

The rumor concerns itself not only with the main antagonist, played by Adam Driver, but also the role of Luke Skywalker. The first bit of testimony comes from Kyle from our message board, The Cantina. He knew about the aforementioned concept art leak a little while before it happened, so we can place our trust in what he has to say. He notes that he got the information from one of his sources that showed him visual evidence of the scene described below. Actually Kyle first described this scene even before the concept art leak, when the scene was only described to him. That’s why you might be familiar with the outline of the scene. Now the description is much more detailed and perfectly fits with some other Luke rumors that were recently posted.

Here are excerpts from Kyle’s description:

Luke Skywalker, bearded and fully fleshed, raising a GREEN lightsaber at Han, who in turn has his classic blaster pointed at him. Adam Driver stands, not so much beside Han, but more off to the side. The perspective almost makes Driver look like he is in the middle. Driver looks concerned, but not frightened, more like he is pondering his next move. I hate to say it, but Luke looks like a crazy person. I don’t know if he’s a villain, a cyborg, or a Jedi Master; but one thing is for sure, he’s a long way from the “Luke Skywalker here to rescue you”. It was actually a little unsettling to see. Luke was in a tattered robe, but I couldn’t tell if it was fully brown or black, because it looked dirty and beat to s***. Luke has some sort of gash or cut on his left forehead. Think Captain Kirk in Star Trek 3 after he fights the Klingon captain at the end. I guess it’s safe to say Luke looks like he just got his ass kicked. Han looks like he is trying to reason with him, but also does not look happy to have a lightsaber pointed his way. His clothes look worn as well, and he appears somewhat disheveled. It’s unmistakably Han Solo, mostly because of his vest/white long sleeve shirt, as well as his blaster. He looks badass as ever. Driver looks like he’s dressed business casual. Gray/black suit, with some sort of burgundy vest or jacket thing. It was hard to tell, of the three men, he was in the most dimly lit part of the frame. I still believe he’s the villain or secondary villain, but he just looks like a bystander here. The three of them are standing in what I guess is a cave or some partially natural environment. The ground beneath them is gravel or dirt. The walls are definitely rock. The lighting is either from a small fire or an incredibly dim source.

The full post can be read here. BTW we got a confirmation from a second source that such photo, image or whatever it is, does exist.

Now first some backstory on the next story. Few days ago there were several rumors posted on 4chan that were completely fake. Not only did they sound ridiculous, but they also said that we at SW7N confirmed to them that the rumors are legit, and that we have sources inside Bad Robot. Both of these statements are a direct lie and I made sure to post a notice on our message boards. Of course I’m very far from saying that everything posted there is fake. After all the Mizzlelump rumors (which we also covered) were posted on that same place, and I have a reason to believe that they were legit.

Nevertheless, one of the posters from 4chan appears to be offended by our claim that some of the posts there are fake and posted the following plot details that actually match with what Kyle said and what Jason Ward from MSW shared further below. Here’s a direct quote.

(thanks to Cantina member Willibobo for sending me this)

(Beware, there are even bigger SPOILERS ahead)

>Luke brought a cataclysm to Tatooine soon after Return of the Jedi after he visited Anakin’s birthplace and for whatever reasons it’s changed him. It’s an even more desolate place now, there are meteor craters everywhere, you get the point, at first you won’t know that it’s even the Tatooine you’re looking at. >Luke goes mad because he discovers he f***ing can’t control himself. He destroys everything around and kills people with his powers, unconsciously. He leaves his friends and lives in solitude on Mon Cal in a fortress of some f*** old sith lord because the dark side that clouds the place puts him in chains. >Luke is now a Yoda + Paul Atreides, he f***ing sees the future, sees the past (that’s why the “flashback” scenes were filmed) and he’s basically a mentally unstable god. >Nobody wants to have anything to do with him, but Han’s son (Adam Driver) wants to use Luke’s power for his own evil means. So, last act of the movie (spoiler, but you’re going to read it anyway): >Luke has a premonition about the destruction that Han’s kid will bring in the future and decides to kill him. >Han is obviously mad as f*** at Luke. >There’s a huge fight. It’s everyone vs Luke (Luke has his father’s red lightsaber here, so it’s obviously visually implied that he’s the bad guy). This fight is epic as f***. >”But Luke isn’t the villain! But everybody thinks he is! Oh no, such a twist! Such darkness! It’s like ESB all again!” >Han kills Luke, because Luke allows him to, “he trusts him”.

The second part of this sounds a bit too much. I personally have a strong reason to believe that this might not be too accurate but only time will tell.

And finally here’s a very interesting read posted by MSW almost together with the above article that does support part of the above rumors. The post is about the state of Luke in the movie that provides greater context to his appearance in this scene, and it highlights the essentials of his character arc in the film. One particular note is that he has stated that he believes he was mistaken about his previous speculation regarding Luke, and that what he has learned since then paints a much clearer picture of the character and the movie as a whole.

Here’s an excerpt of their story. For the full article visit MSW.

Luke Skywalker has become the most powerful Jedi ever, but he doesn’t believe he’s the wisest. He doesn’t want to make the mistake his father made by thinking he knows what’s right for the universe. Skywalker becomes somewhat deranged in his seclusion. He is consumed by his fear that if he should return to “society” his power could be misused, he could be manipulated, and he may accidentally hurt the one’s he loves. For these reasons, to protect the galaxy and himself, Luke retreats into self-imposed exile for many years. I’m told he can’t always control the power. While he sits in a meditative state, he levitates things unconsciously and he’s not always in complete control and he’s never sure if he’s doing the will of the Force or acting on his own passions. Luke is seeing the past, the present, the future, “old friends long gone” and other things that prey upon his sanity.

You can definitely see the connection between these 3 stories. Actually the first and the third are a bit different, but the middle one serves like a bridge between the two. I also like that in all 3 pieces there is no word on the rumor that Luke is a cyborg in Episode VII. Since day one when that cyborg image leaked from Indie Revolver we’ve been saying that Luke is not a cyborg in Episode VII and that no major character will actually be. That’s what our source told us back then and we still stand behind his words.

Finally, we have a few words about the content of the rumor itself. You may or may not have noticed that this description of Luke Skywalker’s character bears a strikingly familiar resemblance to one many already know. In the Timothy Zahn trilogy of books from the 1990’s, known as “The Thrawn Trilogy,” we were introduced to a character named Joruus C’baoth. To quote Wookieepedia quoting Luke Skywalker from “Heir to the Empire”:

“But I really don’t think he’s a Dark Jedi. He’s erratic and moody, but he doesn’t have the sort of evil aura about him that I could sense in Vader and the Emperor. I think it’s more likely that Master C’baoth is insane.”

This character — a powerful and insane Jedi — seems to be what we’re potentially going to see in Episode VII. However, instead of being a clone of a dead Jedi this character is embodied in Luke Skywalker. Now, I can already hear the sound of a millions voices screaming as one, “THE EU IS DEAD!!!” Yes, of course, you are correct. The old EU is dead and will be over-written, but Simon Kinberg (for one) has told us already that the old EU is still fertile ground for cherry-picking concepts, ideas, characters, designs what-have-you:

“It’s certainly not off limits, it’s certainly inspiring. I’m working on an animated show for them as well [in] ‘Star Wars Rebels’ that will take inspiration from everywhere, but I know for the movies the canon is the canon and the canon is the six films that exist.”

In fact, the treatments for the Sequel Trilogy were written by George Lucas himself, so he could easily have merged a powerful future Luke with the character of this insane Jedi Joruus C’baoth, which is extremely intriguing. That said, all the usual caveats and salts apply. Let us know what you think about this potentiality either in the comments section or in The Cantina.

P.S. Special thanks to Echo-07 and Pomojema who also contributed to this article. As always these are just rumors. There’s no such thing as “something is set in stone” with this movie at this point. Even if something is legit, it may not end up in the movie. So treat everything with the proper amount of sodium chloride. Actually I really like the huge diversity of rumors from the last few months. It really makes the whole situation more confusing and contradictory. And that’s where the fun is. I really hope that still there will be many surprises in store for us on December 18, 2015.