When the official trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released last week, Star Wars fans the world over were sent anew into a frenzy of anticipation, “frenzy” and “anticipation” being the default settings for Star Wars fans when confronted with any news about the series. But perhaps none were as excited as self-proclaimed franchise fanatic Stephen Colbert, who apparently spent the off-time from his show last week putting together some thoughts about the trailer and what it means for the plot of the movie it advertises.
Now that there’s an honest-to-god trailer with “actual chunks of movie flavor crystals in it,” as Colbert puts it, he feels confident unleashing a theory about what’s going to happen in the new movie. Long story short, it involves what was once good becoming evil, what was once evil becoming good, and the Force being stretched almost to its breaking point before John Boyega’s Stormtrooper-cum-hero steps up to finally bring unity to the universe. You can watch the whole thing below—it’s a short theory—but Colbert would like to assure you that J.J. Abrams has told him nothing about what really happens, so none of this is inside baseball. As Colbert informs his audience, his good friend Abrams hasn’t even told him what “J.J.” stands for yet.