Star Wars Episode VIII Title Revealed! But Who is The Last Jedi?
On January 23rd, Disney finally released the title of the highly anticipated next movie in the Star Wars saga: Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Now fans are left to speculate the plot of the upcoming film, and beg the question: Who is the last Jedi?
Here’s what we know so far. In the opening crawl of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the term ‘last Jedi’ seems to refer to Luke Skywalker. “the First Order…will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed” However, just because the name Skywalker was mentioned, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s Luke.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, suggested that there are other possibilities.
“Is the last Jedi Leia? Is it me? Is it someone we’ve never met before? Or is it Rey?”
Despite Hamill’s assessment, it seems unlikely that Leia Organa will be the last Jedi, considering the devastating loss of Carrie Fisher, who played the character, late last year. However, this prospect can’t be counted out as filming for Episode VIII was completed in July of 2016.
A more plausible idea is that Rey, the protagonist of The Force Awakens, is actually Luke’s daughter, and hence, the last Jedi. This theory certainly makes sense, as the end of the film appeared to set the scene for Rey’s training as a Jedi Knight. That being said, we’ve yet to see any hard evidence that Rey is related to Luke in any way.
Okay, so who else could it be? Some fans on Reddit think that the title of the new film means the end of the Jedi philosophy for good. In Return of the Jedi, Yoda, laying on his deathbed, instructs Luke to pass on his knowledge of the force to others. In The Force Awakens, we learn that Luke has already tried, only to have his students slaughtered by Kylo Ren, the central enemy of Episode VII. Perhaps Luke will refuse to train anyone else, and he really will be the last Jedi.
Even more extreme theories suggest that it’s actually Kylo Ren himself who the title relates to. Fans speculate that as Ren holds Darth Vader’s mangled helmet and declares that he will ‘finish what he started,’ the character is actually referencing Vader’s killing of the Emperor. Maybe Kylo Ren’s story will be that of redemption, and he will kill Supreme-Leader Snoke, and finally bring balance to the force.
Of course, we also know that the word Jedi can refer to one Jedi, or many. Maybe the title means that there’s a whole group of them. Man, who knew grammar would be important to guessing the plot of Star Wars?
Fans will just have to wait and see. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson, and comes to theaters December 15th of this year.
Bryden Smith believes in the news. But at the dawn of the age of information, he watched as technology became ingrained into peoples’ lives at an exponential rate. The media is struggling to evolve, and with a divided political...