There have already been some hefty fan theories slapped down following the release of The Force Awakens. We’ve heard plenty of thoughts about Kylo Ren, a newer theory that places Rey as a villain, and the ongoing debate over the identity of Supreme Leader Snoke.
The latter point is where this latest fan theory on Reddit revolves, with an interesting-but-questionable choice for the identity of the shadowy villain. But it all begins with the correlation between the film and the 1997 Fox animated classic Anastasia. Our fearless Reddit theorizer uses the film as the base for the theory, pulling in some help from the big guns to set the stage:
Anastasia and the force awakens have strikingly similar stories.
— Jett Lucas (@mrjettlucas) January 16, 2016
Now the user goes from here to describe the film, noting the similarities it has with The Force Awakens:
If you’ve never seen the film, allow me to describe a movie for you.
A child helplessly watches as a means of transportation carries away the only family she has left.
Years later on the verge of adulthood, the child has been under the care of an abusive authorities figure.
The girl longs to leave the place but due to circumstance can not.
The girl longingly watches a ship depart the place she is stuck.
The girl rescues a helpless character and reluctantly allows it to follow her.
This leads to the girl meeting a young man desperate to escape his past.
The girl finally leaves the place she’s been stuck for so long.
The girl is abducted by the villain, the young man pursues and fights for her freedom, ending in him [unconcious] and the girl fearing for his life.
The girl summons a power within her she didn’t know she had and retrieves the [villain’s] weapon before he does, much to the surprise of the villain.
The girl is reunited with her family but leaves again to embrace her destiny.
This is where the theorizing comes into play — and the suspension of disbelief. J.J. Abrams knows who Rey’s parents are in the new slate of films and there have been many theories trying to clamp down her connection to the Skywalker family. This theory takes the position that Rey is the sister of Kylo Ren, making her the lost child of Han and Leia.
One of the most maligned issues in The Force Awakens is when Leia embraces Rey and not Chewbacca. It makes a little more sense if you consider she not only lost her husband that day, but her son as well, and down the ramp comes a girl that would be about the same age as the daughter she lost years ago. Suddenly that scene makes a ton more sense.
There’s a lot more evidence to this theory in the book Bloodline, which even features a music box with lyrics that perfectly match the most popular song from Anastasia, but I want to keep this theory grounded in the films.
Now if Rey was somehow lost to the Solo’s and it played a massive part in the fall of Ben Solo, then it stands to reason that Snoke himself could have been the one to orchestrate Rey’s disappearance.
And now we’ve reached the true goal of this theory. Why would Snoke want to hurt the Solo family? Well as our fearless Reddit user’s name hints at, it would be our The First Order leader represents The Return of Boba Fett. He’s back, he’s out for revenge, and he’s apparently very powerful.
As TheReturnOfBobaFett notes, the new canon books hint at Boba Fett surviving the Sarlacc pit on Tatooine and have even given Fett a more important role in the events of the original films — Fett is now responsible for Darth Vader learning Luke is his son. It’s a stretch considering the leap of going from “bounty hunter” to “supreme leader,” but the theory does attempt to explain some of the reasoning:
The Knights of Ren. It is incredibly pertinent to know that the planet Mandalore is still canon, but that “Mandalorian” has not yet once been used in canon so far. The term could now be “Mandaloren” as in Mandeloren Knights. The Knights of Ren. This is further backed by several of the Knights wearing Mandaloren armor.
The name “First Order”. Snoke isn’t trying to bring back the Empire, he’s trying to bring back the first ultimate power the galaxy ever saw and bring it back under Madaloren rule.
As many of the replies note, Snoke is reportedly not meant to be an established character in the canon. This would automatically rule out Boba Fett in the long run, not to mention the lack of any Force powers in Fett’s bag of tricks. Then we have the apparently teases at Snoke’s identity that have been included in the new novel series attempting to bridge between the existing films:
Most importantly, we see the rise of an enigmatic and mysterious fleet admiral, Gallius Rax (better known as The Operator in the first Aftermath novel). As a child, Rax was taken under the wing of Emperor Palpatine himself. He now works behind the scenes to build a stronger, less bloated Empire in his own image.
The clues all seem to point toward Rax as Snoke: He spends considerable effort rescuing Brendol Hux from the clutches of the New Republic, setting the table for Hux’s son to rise through the ranks by the time TFA picks up.
Still, it’s a fun theory. Who doesn’t want Boba Fett to return and make up for all those silly canon appearances in Return of the Jedi. If I ended up being defeated by a blind man and knocked into the belly of a giant sand anus, I might be pissed enough to go to war too.
It’s more plausible that we’ll see the return of Boba Fett at some point on screen, especially given the character’s popularity over the years. And even without the Fett connection, the placement of Rey as Kylo Ren’s brother is a possibility. Give the thread a read over here and decide for yourself.
