After watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens last month with my brother-in-law, I suggested that there was nothing hugely surprising, at least not on the level of “I am your father.” And I wondered aloud what could have been revealed (or might be revealed in Episode VIII) to shock me. Of course there are rumors that Luke is Rey’s father, or that Jar Jar Binks is Rey’s father, but that’s a lot of father business and we’ve been there.
So, I suggested, what if Supreme Leader Snoke is actually Kylo Ren, from the future? They’re both bad guys sensitive to the force, they both do or will suffer scarring on their faces, and you never see them in the same room together, as Kylo talks to Snoke’s hologram. How do they converse, you ask? I suggest something along the lines of the Doctor Who episode “Blink,” in which Sally converses with a DVD recording of The Doctor. The Doctor makes this possible by obtaining a transcript of the conversation written by an observer and taking it into the past to make the recording before Sally encounters the DVD. (This form of interaction might require several trips, à la Edge of Tomorrow.)
Sure, time travel isn’t really a Star Wars thing, but consider that the next episode will be written and directed by Rian Johnson, the writer and director of Looper, a film about a man tasked with killing a version of himself sent from the future. And the following episode will be written by Johnson and directed by Colin Trevorrow, the director of Safety Not Guaranteed, a movie about the use of a time machine. Instead of “I am your father,” it’s “ 'Sup bigguy. You don’t age well.”
