It?s the hot question on the Star Wars obsessed mind, fuelled by the release of the new posters. Why isn?t there any sight of Luke in the trailers? Why isn?t he on the main poster?  Where is he?

It?s a given that he?s alive at the beginning of the film, since Mark Hammil has been cast to play him. Beyond that, we speculate.

So, let?s look at some scenarios.

Episodes 1-3 were Anakin?s trilogy. Episodes 4-6 were Luke?s trilogy. So, episodes 7-9 should belong to Luke?s child but would that be Rey or Kylo? (Why not Leia?s offspring? Could be, but direct line is Anakin-Luke-Rey. And it?d be nice to think that at some point in his life, Luke had sex. You know Leia and Han have been going at it like bunnies).

It would definitely be more interesting if Kylo were Luke?s child, but my gut says that its spunky, hotshot pilot Rey who is Luke?s offspring. Kylo as Luke?s son, an antithesis to Luke would echo nicely with the original trilogy and Luke?s mirroring his father.

Someone’s died. Could it be… Luke?

But let?s face it, it?s Rey, even if she doesn?t wield a lightsaber in anything we?ve seen so far (Luke barely touches a lightsaber in the original Star Wars). We?ve even seen photos of her running for the Falcon (which isn?t hers. – remember, we?ve seen Han and Chewie reclaim the Falcon, armed). We?ve also seen Kylo Ren walking out of the Falcon – for whatever that?s worth.

Is Luke Obi-wan (dead in the first film) or is he Yoda (dead in the second film)? This can?t be another Luke trilogy, so at some point, he needs to move out of the picture, and join his father in the ethereal realm.

UPDATE: Mark Hammil has stated that he has started growing his beard back, so that he can be in Episode VIII. So all bets are off – or are they?