'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' update: Luke Skywalker's absence in trailer and poster is 'no accident', says J.J. Abrams

(Star Wars Website)Star Wars The Force Awakens

Luke Skywalker fans, hold your horses — or at least those theories surrounding his absence from the recent wave of promotional materials for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." The film's director has already spoken about it. Or at least, teased that it's all for a greater purpose.

In a red carpet event, Associated Press went up to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" director, J.J. Abrams, and frantically asked him, "No Luke! Where's Luke? What happened? What does that mean?" Instead of being fazed, Abrams looked pleased and answered, "These are the questions to be asking. I can't wait for you to find out the answer."

Of course, a vague an answer such as that begged for a clarification. The interviewers fired (just as frantically) an expected follow-up question, "So there's a reason." But not to be coerced into giving out more details, the 49-year old director smiled and simply said, "It's no accident."

So it's not an answer that fans of the franchise — and of the iconic original trilogy protagonist, specifically — have been waiting for. But it least seems to be giving hope that Luke is there, just obviously absent in the trailer and poster.

The absence of Anakin's spawn on the recent poster and trailer for Episode VII had caused such a stir amongst fans. They all tried coming up with theories that could possibly explain the situation. Some went from the plausible (maybe Luke is turning to the Dark Side and his absence is meant to mask that fact) to crazy (maybe he morphed into Jar Jar Binks). But it seems that it may simply be a case of the director wanting to shroud his fate in a bit of mystery.

Speaking of causing a stir, "The Force Awakens" online ticket sales has caused a bit of frenzy, causing the reservation site Fandango to crash. Everyone seemed to be in a rush to be the ones to secure tickets for the seventh installment of the epic space opera. Variety reported that during its first day of sales, "The Force Awakens" surpassed "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" ticket sales eight-fold. The figures led to its shattering sales records on the Fandango site alone.

Find out what J.J. Abrams has in mind for Luke Skywalker when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" rolls out to theatres this Dec. 18.

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