Who Dies In Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most likely, someone’s going to be a goner here. Yes, with the inclusion of a new chapter of the Star Wars universe, odds are that we’ll be saying goodbye to old and/or new characters in a galaxy far, far away. With this article, we thought we’d take the opportunity to narrow down some of the more likely candidates for who will be pushing up daisies by the film’s end. To be honest, Star Wars has seen its fair share of death, though in the original trilogy, outside of Palpatine and Vader, we didn’t get a lot of our main characters dying. Granted, we saw Jabba the Hutt get strangled to death, Greedo get shot under the table, and Boba Fett swallowed by a sandworm (only to later break free and become the god king of the Mandelorian race!…Sorry that’s Extended Universe), but we were able to come away fairly unscathed when it came to our protagonists. Well, we still lost Ben Kenobi and Yoda but in a way, they’re sort of still alive right?

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that everyone makes it out of Force Awakens alive, simply because I want to spend more time with these characters, old and new. Unfortunately though, sometimes life isn’t fair so here’s our rundown of the most likely candidates running on borrowed time.

Chewbacca

Not Chewie! Yes, unfortunately the big furball might be the first on the chopping block, specifically because of a scene from one of the Force Awakens trailers. In it, Rey cries over a rather large, and seemingly hairy, body. This would certainly be a blow to the audience as Chewbacca is one of the most well-loved characters in the series, even though he has never said one word of English. On the snowy planet which houses the fight between Kylo Ren and Finn, clearly someone is bound to fall and who’s to say it isn’t the most famous Wookie of them all.

Now, Chewbacca’s death can have some precedence here as this wouldn’t be the first time the Wookie died. In the Extended Universe, Chewie had, what I can say without a shadow of a doubt, to be one of the most badass deaths in fictional history. That’s right, Chewbacca was killed by crashing into a moon. Not in that his ship was crashing into said moon mind you, but that the planet he was on was literally struck by a moon which killed Han’s best friend in a show of glory the likes of which few have seen. I think also, with a lot of the new cast, we should somewhat go into these movies thinking that at some point, they may be offed simply because of their age, no offense Chewie.

Kylo Ren

Wait a minute, he’s not old! Ok, I’m going with Kylo Ren on this one since number one, he’s a villain and villains usually don’t end up in a good place when all is said and done within the Star Wars Universe. Number two, this movie has an absolute BOATLOAD of villains to choose from. It almost seems somewhat top heavy at this point with the likes of Ren, Captain Phasma, Snoke, the First Order, the Knights of Ren, and others that have yet to be revealed. Heck, Luke Skywalker has been rumored to potentially be a villain as well! Anyway, with so many villains on deck for Force Awakens, we could certainly cut a few down and have plenty of room for the sequels. Kylo Ren doesn’t appear to even be the main big baddie of the picture, more of a right hand man for Snoke, who may or may not turn out to be Darth Plagueis, the original master of Emperor Palpatine.

Maybe Ren’s death sets up a new leader of the First Order to hit the scene, or perhaps opens the way for one of our newer characters to be lead down the path of the darkside to take his place as a threat in future films. All I know is, folks who are members of the Empire haven’t had the best track record for staying in the land of the living.

Han Solo

Han seems to be the most likely candidate from the idea of the rumors all seem to be pointing at him to bite the bullet. In some interviews, Harrison Ford has even stated that he debated doing another Star Wars movie to begin with, and with the rumor that Kylo Ren is his son, it could make for quite the dramatic moment if Ren were responsible for his dad’s death. I don’t think we’ll be getting the death of both Han and Chewie in the Force Awakens, but if I had to go with one or the other, I’d probably choose Solo. Chewie could always be a background character, whereas Han is just larger than life and it would seem that a grand exit in Episode 7 would make the most sense for the character at this point.

Harrison Ford had a good run with the old bounty hunter, but maybe this will be the time to turn in the keys to the Milennial Falcon and hand over the laser blaster.

Luke Skywalker

Wait a minute, Luke is confirmed for Episode 8 so this can’t be right…or can it? We’re going to need to make way for a whole new generation of Jedi with the Force Awakens and just because Skywalker has been confirmed for future sequels doesn’t mean he can’t appear either in flashbacks, or in fact, as a ghost within the force in a similar way as Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-Wan had. Mark Hamill has done his darndest to look like his mentor, and who’s to say he doesn’t follow in his unfortunate footsteps, truly completing the circle in raising a new Jedi, in the form of either Rey or Finn, while also falling to the lightsaber of a Sith?

Regardless of who lives and who dies, it will be great to see all these characters once again in the Force Awakens and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Chewbacca makes it through the minefield at the very least.