By Ryan Rigley
Last week, "Star Trek Into Darkness" director J.J. Abrams had a few words to say on the status of the upcoming "Star Wars" films. "There are discussions about what would happen later and how to make this thing," explains Abrams in a recent interview with MTV News. "You can't look at it in a binary way. It's obviously part of something much greater. To talk about those off-shoot films, that's something you have to talk about with Kathleen Kennedy."
Clearly, the proposed Yoda, Boba Fett, and Young Han Solo spinoff films all rely quite heavily on the success of "Star Wars VII." But with a release slated for summer 2015, it seems as if the answers to our questions are still pretty far off. Chief among those questions being which characters will be making an appearance in the new "Star Wars" trilogy? Not C-3P0 or R2-D2. I'm talking obscure characters like IG-88; a bounty hunter droid that makes a brief appearance in "The Empire Strikes Back."
Who?
Built on the planet Halowan as a part of Project Phlutdroid, the IG-88 assassin droids were designed by an Imperial officer named Gurdun with the hopes that his new murder machines would bring him wealth and fame. However, as soon as the first IG-88 model (IG-88A) is turned on, it immediately deems itself superior to all organic beings and proceeds to kill all 15 scientists in a matter of seconds.
Quickly conceiving a plan for galactic conquest, IG-88A transfers its memories and sentience programming to the remaining three IG-88 models (IG-88B, IG-88C, IG-88D); effectually creating a hive mind. IG-88B would go on to become the second deadliest bounty hunter in the galaxy (right after Boba Fett) as a means of distracting the organics from IG-88A's true plans for droid superiority.
Why?
Cold, calculating and efficient; the IG-88 assassin droids are truly a force to be reckoned with. They are always thinking of the bigger picture, looking for any way they can to eliminate all forms of organic life from the galaxy. In fact, at one point, IG-88A had plans to upload his consciousness to the hull of the second Death Star which would essentially make the already unstoppable killing machine ten times as powerful and ten times as unstoppable. Luckily for the rest of the galaxy, the Rebel Alliance managed to blow up the second Death Star during the Battle of Endor; mere seconds before IG-88A could complete the uploading process.
How?
After the destruction of the second Death Star, the original IG-88's body is found on the droid factory world of Mechis III and reprogrammed as a less sentient, more traditional assassin droid. That being said, this version of IG-88 could totally make an appearance in "Star Wars VII" as somebody's personal bodyguard. Alternatively, I think it's fairly safe to say that the whole droid uprising storyline could make for one hell of a plot for the next "Star Wars" trilogy. What say you, Mr. Abrams?
