I haven't written much about Star Wars: The Force Awakens because the truth is that I haven't had all that much to add. I like Star Wars but I'm not the type of super-fan that has much new to add, but there was one part in The Force Awakens that bothers me and I came up with an explanation that not only largely fixes the problem but makes one of the side characters far more interesting.

Everyone knows by now knows that Daniel Craig had a cameo in The Force Awakens as JB-007 a Stormtrooper that gets the Jedi Mind trick used on him by Rey. There has been a lot of talk about Rey being too strong in the movies. I tend to discount this in most cases because most of what she did in the movie could be explained away by her being a fairly good fighter and pilot which are both skills anyone could learn.

But the Jedi Mind trick is a bit more problematic for me. They have established in other sources (primarily the Clone Wars cartoon) that it isn't easy to do and takes practice for people who are training under Jedi and while I know there are other theories, but the movie doesn't show that Rey has any Jedi training and that makes the Mind Trick a step to far.

So how do you fix that? Simple enough. She didn't actually use the Jedi Mind trick on him. She didn't have to because JB-007 is a spy for the republic. (Not the rebel alliance which is why the rebels didn't know he was there.) He simply pretended to let the Jedi Mind trick work because it gave him cover for helping Rey to escape. He likely even helped more by dealing with some of the other guards that would have certainly be left to guard the incredibly important prisoner but we didn't see in the movie.

This would also be a great way to set up a spin off spy thriller in the Star Wars universe that could create an interesting way to explain and explore the politics in the new Star Wars universe. Basically Daniel Craig would be a spy infiltrating the organization of the evil mastermind Supreme Leader Snoke and stop him from using his master weapon.

The movie would happen largely in parallel to the events of The Force Awakens. It would explain what the Republic is doing and explore The First Order. You could also have some entertaining and funny moments like him turning off the shields to Starkiller Base at the same time that Captain Phasma meant to lock them out of the system.

I understand that there are likely to be people who question the need to have a movie length back story for small side characters that were never meant to be the center of a story. I would tend to agree, but it seems clear that isn't going to stop Disney for long and taking advantage of an actor who is clearly fond of the source material and is able to play the part that would be required.