The wait is over! Episode VIII finally has an official name and first poster! The name is “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The title alone brings up a plethora of questions for fans though. With the secrecy surrounding “The Force Awakens” however, it is doubtful there will be any explanation to the name until the time of its December 2017 theatrical release.
To revisit, where the story thus far has left off (as if you didn’t know) is a young Rey, a young girl very gifted with “the force” meets face to face with the aging Luke Skywalker. Coming face to face with him on a remote island where he has been in hiding from the galaxy.
So, what exactly does “The Last Jedi” mean? Clearly Luke is alive (and well?) on said island, and Rey we presume will train in the ways of the force and become a Jedi with the intentions of stopping the First Orders dastardly plan that the Empire failed in of controlling the entire galaxy. So, that would be 2 Jedi right? Well if we look at the obvious answer, Rey has not been yet trained and isn’t even officially an apprentice so it would be accurate to say that Luke Skywalker is in fact the LAST Jedi…for now anyway.
When speaking to other fans I got a varied response to the titles true meaning. One interesting one was from a fellow “nerd” Ian who speculated, “I think it’s just entitling Luke. He is the very last true Jedi, people want to learn from him or destroy him. If he can be destroyed before he is willing and able to train the next generation of Jedi, he will be the last of the Jedi and problem solved for the First Order. The essential premise of (The Force Awakens) was the hunt for Luke (by both the heroes and the villains) so now that he is found, it’s game on.”
Another thought is the title itself could be foreshadowing of a major tragedy in the upcoming movie. Does “The Last Jedi” mean that Luke or Rey will suffer the same fate as Han Solo in “The Force Awakens,” and be killed off to leave truly only one Jedi? It would be doubtful that the title alone would give away such a spoiler, but the franchise has shown they are not afraid of killing off both major heroes or villains for that matter (remember how excited everyone was for Darth Maul only to have him cut in half almost immediately?)
Finally, I have one other theory that might be far fetched but could have some credence. Luke was devastated by his failure with his students being slaughtered by Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren after Kylo Ren turned to the Dark Side. What if Luke refuses to train Rey in fear that she will also fall to the Dark Side and the true Jedi tradition will die with Luke. This would be an interesting turn of events as we just assume Rey shows up with Luke’s lightsaber and he starts training her in the ways of the Jedi. What if he just flat out refuses and decides to take on the burden of the fight on his own? It’s an outside chance, and I am sure there will be some inner conflict within Luke to take on another apprentice in fear of history repeating itself, but could also be an interesting plot twist.
Time will tell but with the film less than a year away, it is “game on” for speculation, and with the first real major announcement besides release date revealed, we are chomping at the bit to bring you the latest rumors and theories.
By Nick Imholte
