WARNING: There will be spoilers for certain aspects of Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead. So read at your own risk.
If you couldn’t tell, it’s the end of the year. And Star Wars is the topic that is heavy in play, especially considering it just passed $1 billion globally in record time. The movie is pretty popular and much like the Force, the speculation is strong. So strong that it doesn’t even make sense most of the time — looking at you crawl comma theory. Theories are fun, though, if only because some people get very, very angry and others take the craziness to the extreme.
Take these two new theories revolving around Poe Dameron, Oscar Isaac’s ace pilot from The Force Awakens. If you take his character at face value in the film, he’s a supporting act with the ability to fly anything. Like most of the characters, we don’t know anything past official releases and what we see in the movie. That isn’t stopping folks from speculating, though.
In one theory, a plausible one, ComicBook.com notes that the Star Wars: Shattered Empire comics from Marvel are talking about some Force-sensitive trees from the former Jedi temple:
He recovers two saplings that grew from the tree at the heart of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, itself converted into the Imperial Palace during Palpatine’s reign as Emperor. “The Force is with them,” Luke blatantly states.
You can read the full rundown over at the site, but the relation to Poe involves Luke giving one of the trees to Poe’s parents to plant at their home on Yavin IV. So given his talents as a pilot, the theory is that these trees may have rubbed off on Poe a bit.
It is doubtful, especially since he couldn’t resist Kylo Ren’s Force interrogation at the start of the film. But who knows, maybe everybody is a Jedi.
The crazier theory is one that involves Poe Dameron being gay, possibly leading to the first on-screen same-sex relationship in the Star Wars franchise. We already noted how there were gay characters in the expanded universe and how one of the newer canon novels were introducing the first LGBT character into the series. But could Poe be the first major character?
The idea comes from Hypable and pulls from an interview Oscar Isaac had with his fellow castmates on Ellen:
“I think it’s very subtle romance that’s happening. You know, you have to just look very close — you have to watch it a few times to see the little hints. But there was.”
And with that, the seed was planted. Poe doesn’t have much of a relationship with female characters on screen, so if you’re talking romance, Hypable points to his relationship with John Boyega’s Finn. The site also points out that Isaac has been fairly sharp with his handling of more “progressive issues” during other interviews and press events. It could just be humor or it could be a true belief. Or hey, it could just be bullsh*t.
Now this one is not crazy due to the fact that nobody in Star Wars can be gay or that Poe Dameron couldn’t have some feelings for Finn. It is crazy because Disney is at the helm with this billion-dollar franchise. Having an LGBT character in a novel is one thing I believe a major corporation is ready to drop on the public. In the middle of the biggest series in film history? I wouldn’t be so sure.
Then again, this is the same company that airs Modern Family and has no alarm bells that ring in relation to such ideas in the past. I just feel like that’s an easier sell than, “hey, that beloved thing from your childhood is once again a social talking point. Good night.”
Go for it, though. It’d be an interesting way to make this trilogy different from the original and Poe seems like a pretty confident guy. He can do what he pleases and it’ll all work out in the end. Plus he’s a badass. What do you think? Check out the Ellen interview below:
(Via ComicBook.com / Hypable)
