There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?
That was Andy Serkis’ voice in the teaser for The Force Awakens. But who is he playing?
The Star Wars Underworld have sourced some information on the character, codenamed “Uber”: he’s an old man who appears to be “zombie like”, and indeed, he may in fact be the puppet master who is pulling all the strings.
“Uber” is of course the German word for “over” or “above”, or in colloquial English, something like “ultra”, “supreme”, “ultimate”, etcetera. Most likely, Serkis’ character’s appearance is so extreme, motion capture is the only way to achieve it.
So… let’s speculate. Who would be the ultimate bad guy above even Palpatine? Who was it who learned to “cheat death”? Whose presence would instantly justify the existence of Episode VII?
Darth Plagueis, of course.
That’s my guess. The prequels, while elevating Palpatine in many ways, also diminished his archetypal qualities as the pure embodiment of ancient evil. The genius here is that the writers (including George Lucas, let’s not forget) have transferred that to Serkis’ character. And because the Darth Plagueis novel is now apocryphal, his backstory is vague enough to be suggestive and evocative without being too concrete.
An Ancient Fear indeed…
P.S. Ignore all the 4chan/Reddit rumours floating around. They’re bunk.
Star Wars Always 
seems about right