Hopefully not too many Bothan spies died for this information: photos of what are apparently new designs for the Stormtroopers have – again, we stress the apparently – leaked out of the production of Star Wars: Episode VII.

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If true, then the pictures back up fan theories from last month's reveal of the film's new X-Wing: that JJ Abrams will be subtly updating the Star Wars universe, without tarnishing the original film's aesthetic.

See the pictures below.

See? Not that bad. The next one appears to be more of a drastic change, but doesn't look too dissimilar to the Snowtroopers that feature in The Empire Strikes Back.

As you may have guessed from the watermark, the pictures were obtained by film blog Indie Revolver, who say that they have "reliable information" that they're the real deal. Star Wars: Episode VII have not officially confirmed them as genuine, however. If it does turn out that they are fan-made designs, though, then they are very impressive fan-made designs – ones that certainly feel more like Star Wars that the prequel trilogy's Clone troopers did.

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Star Wars: Episode VII is scheduled for release in UK cinemas on 18th December 2015.

Authors

Stephen Kelly

Stephen Kelly is a freelance culture and science journalist. He oversees BBC Science Focus's Popcorn Science feature, where every month we get an expert to weigh in on the plausibility of a newly released TV show or film. Beyond BBC Science Focus, he has written for such publications as The Guardian, The Telegraph, The I, BBC Culture, Wired, Total Film, Radio Times and Entertainment Weekly. He is a big fan of Studio Ghibli movies, the apparent football team Tottenham Hotspur and writing short biographies in the third person.

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