Someone on here talked about there being mentioning or a reference to the Whills in this movie. Tell us about them?
Indeed, there is! Two of the characters - Chirrut Imwe (the blind monk) and Baze Malbus (the “heavy weapons”) are Guardians of the (temple of the) Whills.
Whether that makes them actual Whills or just Guardians was not stated explicitly, at least I did not catch it. Both were believers in the Force. Chirrut actually appeared to be Force-sensitive but he was definitely not a Jedi. As to the Whills, I think the context implied they were venerating the Force and their temple on Jeddha was a source of knowledge. I would have imagined it being a library and them being librarians/monks but not Jedi proper. Jeddha is also a major source of Kyber crystals.
The Empire early on thrashed the temple and scattered the Whills. The Guardians were described as disgruntled protectors, with “nothing left to protect anymore.”
Chirrut and Baze were both some of the spotlights of the movie - great actor performance, great dialogue and combat skills from both.