The Star Wars: Episode VII teaser trailer introduced us to a Stormtrooper protagonist, a girl with a cool landspeeder and rolling droid, and a mysterious cloaked figure wielding a controversial new lightsaber. Now we have their names!
Director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy chose a very vintage way to introduce the new generation of Star Wars heroes and villains and those in-between: They’re releasing Topps trading cards, made to look like the old Topps cards sold with Episode IV back in 1977, with the new characters’ names.
Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
This first set features cards with red and blue borders; with the original Topps, those were the most desired cards. As you saw above, the rolling droid (snarkily nicknamed “R2-FIFA” by some fans) is actually called BB-8. Here’s everyone else—and yes, there is significance to the card numbers, teases Abrams.
Though a lot of speculation had Daisy Ridley’s character as Kira, Rey suits her better. Interestingly, Rey does not have a surname—or at least, not one that we get to know yet.
As EW points out, the name Poe immediately evokes thoughts of darkness and intensity. When we first saw Oscar Isaac in his X-Wing, he did look rather forbidding.
The caption informs us that Finn (again, no surname provided) is on the run. So, the mystery remains of whether John Boyega’s character is a rogue Stormtrooper or just using the armor as a disguise.
Is that Adam Driver wielding the new saber? We don’t know yet, but we do have a name for our ominous figure: Kylo Ren.
Now that you have a sense of who’s who, it might make it more fun to contemplate the alleged spoilery plot details leaked last week. Check out the full list at Entertainment Weekly to see the Millennium Falcon and other familiar ships.
Lucasfilm has hinted that they might release a round of yellow-, green-, and orange-bordered cards down the line. Ostensibly these would introduce us to the characters played by Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, and Andy Serkis. Whether we’ll get our first look at Luke, Leia, and Han through trading cards or some other method remains to be seen.
Photos: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Well, ast least we know Kylo Ren isn’t Gwendolyn Christie
Ahh, nostalgia. I used to have a number of those trading cards. And I couldn’t stand bubble gum (or rather, could never get the hang/see the point of chewing something without swallowing it) — I just bought the cards and threw the gum away, or gave it to a friend. I had a pretty fair-sized collection after a while. I don’t recall what happened to it. It’s remotely possible I still have it, but I probably gave it away at some point.
Well it looks like that “spoiler” of Oscar Isaac’s character’s last name being Darklighter was false. Who know what else in that list was as well. Though I did enjoy at some of the plot points suggested.
Cool. I like to think “BB” stands for Basket Ball. :D
I still have my old cards, never had a complete set but I think I have about 200 or so
Perhaps the numbers correspond to the old cards and the clues are there?
I’m assuming the numbers correspond to the order the scenes appear in the movie.
@6: Card to card comparison:
#11: 2014 card is “BB-8 on the move”, 1977 card is “Artoo is imprisoned by the Jawas”
#53: 2014 card is “Poe Dameron in his X-Wing”, 1977 card is “Battle in outer space!”.
#67: 2014 card is “Kylo Ren ignites his Lightsaber!”, 1977 card is “See-Threepio and Luke”.
#74: 2014 card is “Rey on her speeder”, 1977 card is “Luke Skywalker on Tatooine”.
#76: 2014 card is “Finn on the run!”, 1977 card is “Artoo-Detoo on the Rebel Starship!”.
#81: 2014 card is “Stormtroopers prepare for battle!”, 1977 card is “Weapons of the Death Star!”.
#88: 2014 card is “X-Wings in Formation!”, 1977 card is “Stormtroopers guard Solo’s Ship”.
#96: 2014 card is “The Millennium Falcon”, 1977 card is “The Droids on Tatooine”.
There are some pairs of old and new cards which synch up to me, such as #53 and #76 and some which don’t, like #67.
Is it safe to assume that Rey doesn’t have a sur name listed because her last name is very likely Solo?
@2: But that’s just buying into the myth that swallowing gum is bad for you.
A slight improvement…
@10: I wasn’t buying into any myth. I wasn’t afraid of swallowing gum, I just didn’t know how to chew something without swallowing it, and the one time I tried doing so, it just seemed totally pointless and silly. I just wasn’t interested in learning how to chew gum, so I never bothered.
@12: You mean without immediately swallowing it then? That makes sense though.
Actually, sometimes with gum I get trapped in this place where I want more of the chewing and the flavor, but I also just want it to be over.
Finn was one of the most popular baby names (#4) in the US in 2014 – I predict hipster babies named Rey, Poe, Kylo, and obviously, more Finns, all of them wearing bespoke Luke Skywalker Bespin jackets.
“whether John Boyega’s character is a rogue Stormtrooper” Or is he a Stormtrooper at all? He does not have the thing which looks like “011” on his back. Rewatch the opening scenes of ANH for what I mean.
@15: We know the Stormtrooper armor has been redesigned. There’s a shot of a bunch of Stormtroopers elsewhere in the trailer, and their helmets are more “modern” and streamlined. So that’s probably why the details are different.
** POSSIBLE SPOILER **
@8: Actually I think the all synch up, which makes #67 a MASSIVE spoiler
@17 the old cards are not in chronological order. #11 is Artoo captured by Jaws then they go to the Death Star and later numbers have the droids back on Tatooine.
@18: I think #17 was speaking in terms of correspondences between the contents of the cards, as discussed in #8. I don’t agree, though, since there are several that don’t correspond at all.
I guess I’m just not seeing what’s spoiling about it.
@17: You’re making a joke, right? Or do you seriously think Kylo Ren is See-Threepio as a Sith Lord with the memories of Luke Skywalker?
I also don’t see any correspondance, given the list in #8. Possibly the X-Wings one, but it’s still a stretch.
@21:
No, the correlation is C3P0 and Luke were both created by Anakin Skywalker “from a certain point of view.”
I still don’t see it as a spoiler, however. Possible interpretations are:
He’s an Inquisitor, an order created by Darth Vader.
He’s another son of Darth Vader, no idea how that could have happened, though.
He’s a clone of Luke, and he’s part cyborg, that could be made to fit the card.
He’s a clone of Anakin himself… doesn’t match up to the cards, but you COULD just say the card correlation is Skywalker, I guess.
Too many possibilities for any correlation to be a spoiler.
@@@@@ 8, 18-22 –
Original Series Topps cards breakdown:
A NEW HOPE:
1-8 Main cast;
9-56: plot (chronological);
57-330: out of sequence, promo, production.
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK:
1-11: Main cast;
12-116: plot (chronological);
117- 350: out of sequence, promo, production.
RETURN OF THE JEDI:
1-8 Main cast;
9-130: plot (chronological);
131-219: out of sequence, promo, production.
(The Topps cards for episodes I – III all feature the chronological plot exclusively, and they’re probably irrelevant, as the episode VII cards are in the style of the 1977-83 cards)
The Topps ESB & ROTJ collections featured a more lengthy run of chronological plot related cards than ANH – if Topps adhered very closely to the ANH card sequence, all new series cards seen thus far (other than numbers 11 & 53) are likely not in sequence, as they are all higher in number than 56. In this scenario, we can assume that #11 either features a main character, or takes place very early in the film, and that #53 takes place near the end.
My personal guess is that numbers 11, 53, and 67 are in chronological order, and that the remainder are out of sequence.
Of course, it’s pure speculation that the “significance” of the numbers is that they parallel earlier trading cards. The numbers could be scene numbers from the script, or they could have some more obscure significance. Any fans of Fringe know that J.J. Abrams loves putting puzzles and codes and hidden messages in his work. Maybe the numbers represent letters and you have to anagram them to reveal a message. Maybe if you put the numbers in the right order, they have some other meaning. If anything, I doubt Abrams would make it so obvious as a one-to-one correspondence with the older trading cards.
There’s precedent for my simple, plausible explanation, in that the existing card sets feature a brief chronological recounting of each corresponding film plot. No one-to-one correspondence required.
If we’re looking at a transposition cipher here, we have to ask ourselves whether or not it’s worth our time – since it’s JJ Abrams and a proposed mystery we’re talking about, I’m willing to bet that this payoff, if it even exists (I’m looking at you, LOST), is not worth my time. The cipher in Fringe added absolutely nothing to the series, and likewise, I’d rather simply watch The Force Awakens next year.
@25: I would say that this is almost certainly not worth anyone’s time. As you say, the movie is only a year away, and all will be revealed.
@25 & 26: There is a subset of people who enjoy solving puzzles for the sake of solving puzzles. A fictional work is allowed to cater to more than one set of tastes at a time.
@27: Well, I was impying that my opinion is that there ISN’T any puzzle…though I suppose if someone labored all year trying to solve the puzzle to no avail (because there wasn’t one) but still enjoyed the task when all was said and done, then your comment still applies. In any case, your comment makes me realize that my original comment was a little too negative and “hasty” in the Ent sense, and I apologize.
@@@@@ 23 – 25: Ha, I was right.