Star Wars: The Force Awakens may have made over $2B with billions more coming in Blu-Ray sales next month, but J.J. Abrams wants you to know it isn't perfect. Mistakes were made. Critical mistakes. And at least one has led tinfoil-hat wearing theorists to speculate all kinds of stuff about General Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Rey (Daisy Ridley)...all because of a hug.
In one of film's key latter scenes, there's a very emotional, heart-breaking reunion following the destruction of Starkiller Base. And in that moment we see Leia pass by Chewbacca, who is undoubtedly a wreck considering what has just happened, and instead go to hug Rey, who she was meeting for the first time. Isn't that a little weird? What did Chewie do to deserve that kind of snub? Obviously it means Rey and Leia are like related or something, right? Abrams shuts all that nonsense down in his comments to Slashfilm...
"That was probably one of the mistakes I made in that. My thinking at the time was that Chewbacca, despite the pain he was feeling, was focused on trying to save Finn and getting him taken care of. So I tried to have Chewbacca go off with him and focus on Rey, and then have Rey find Leia and Leia find Rey. The idea being that both of them being strong with the Force and never having met, would know about each other — that Leia would have been told about her beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia. And that reunion would be a meeting and a reunion all in one, and a sort of commiseration of their mutual loss."
Oh yeah sure, you say that now, Mr. Mystery Box! He continues...
“Had Chewbacca not been where he was, you probably wouldn’t have thought of it. But because he was right there, passed by Leia, it felt almost like a slight, which was definitely not the intention.”
Let's be real, if this was George Lucas he'd find a way to digitally scrub Chewie right out of the scene, then put out Blu-Rays only with the altered version. At least Abrams is cool enough to talk about what was clearly just an oversight. A curious one, but an oversight nonetheless.
