I have a The Force Awakens poster in my office. (I’m an academic – loosely speaking – so my office can reflect my fandoms, not my politics, but definitely my fandoms.)

I’m sure you’re familiar with it, but here it is as a refresher:

I noticed a few things as I was staring at it, but it reminded me of another poster I’ve seen. Here it is:

First of all, let’s talk about similarities.

1. The villain of the piece is the largest head, looming over all – we know that Kylo and Vader are the bad guys, right?
2. The main characters are the second largest figures on the posters. Rey and Finn and Luke, Leia, and Han.
3. Supporting characters are sized proportionally.
4. Weapons are prominently featured, all of them, large and small be it a lightsaber, blaster, or Death Star/Starkiller Base.
5. The tone is the same, in my estimation. Granted, the TFA poster has a more modern feel, but that’s for obvious reasons. But the overall feel is the same. I’m sure others can explain that in more detail with regards to the elements of graphic design that make this so.

So what does this all mean? I have thoughts.

First of all, Poe is not, and will not be, leading character in the sequel trilogy. I’m afraid, as much as I like Poe, he will be forever relegated to supporting character status. This is not a bad thing, per se. But he’s not a lead. Just look at the poster. He’s quite small, and he doesn’t even make an appearance on the teaser poster for The Last Jedi. Don’t believe me? Okay, here it is:

Of course, I’m not making the same argument about Finn. He’s clearly cast as one of the leads in TFA, just as Han, Luke, and Leia are in ANH. I suspect that he will be prominently featured in the official poster for TLJ. I think Poe will be on that poster as well, but he won’t be a “big” character.

But enough on that.

Let’s look at Ren and Vader. Yes, they are the bad guys, but – they aren’t the worst guys, now are they? Vader and Ren both have bosses who are worse than they are. Vader also redeems himself by RotJ. I wonder if that could mean that Ren finds himself doing much the same thing within the auspices of the next two saga films. The big bad is not even on the poster; he’s hiding from the viewer.

Perhaps even more disturbingly, Luke, in the teaser poster for TLJ, is the largest, most overwhelming figure. Please don’t mean that Luke is going to be a bad guy; please don’t mean that Luke is going to be a bad guy. Please, please, please. On the other hand, that would be one heck of a twist, but it could also mean that a darker Luke may eventually come out the other side a better person, much like Vader did in the original trilogy and like I believe Kylo Ren will do in the sequel trilogy.

But please don’t be bad, Luke. Please. With sugar on top. Or whatever your preferred sweetener of choice is.

Judging from the posters alone, I’d say that our trio is not Rey, Finn, and Poe. I’d say, from the posters, we don’t have a trio at all. Unless, of course, you count Kylo Ren.

Here’s my bold prediction (ha!):

I bet we’ll have a trio for the poster for Episode IX, though. It’ll feature Ben Solo, Rey, and Finn. 

Based on wild speculation and nothing else I further predict:

The end game will be Ben flying the Falcon with Rey; Finn will be with his love interest, Rose (I can’t wait to meet her!); Chewie will go home, and Luke will retreat to his island refuge once again. Sadly, I think Leia will not be with us. 

I can’t wait to see how hilariously wrong I’m certain to be!