Mark Hamill Talks About Who 'The Last Jedi' Could Be in 'Star Wars Episode 8'
Over a week ago, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney surprisingly dropped the title for the next "Star Wars" saga — "The Last Jedi" — to the delight of the franchise's fans. And as with anything connected to the "galaxy far far away," lore followers were quick to present their own respective speculations about what the title could mean to the ongoing Skywalker story.
While the title "The Last Jedi" seems pretty straightforward, many are still confused as to who the title could be referring to. Some fans believe that there is more to the name than meets the eye, causing them to dig deep into what else it could possibly mean. Others, meanwhile, are pretty sold on the notion that it simply refers to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). After all, the opening crawl for 2015's "Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens" dubbed Darth Vader's son to be the last Jedi.
Given that Lucasfilm Ltd. is notorious for being very secretive about any details regarding its future "Star Wars" movies, Hamill was very coy when asked who he thinks the last Jedi could be. During an interview with /Film, while promoting his latest gig, "Brigsby Bear," in Sundance, the veteran actor posed some interesting theories.
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"I think it's very ambiguous. Is the last Jedi Leia [Carrie Fisher]? Is it me? [...] Is it someone we've never met before? Or is it Rey [Daisy Ridley]? Because she seems to have the Force as well. So we'll all wait and see," he said, name-dropping his "Star Wars" twin and contemporary trilogy heroine, respectively.
Long-time fans know that while Leia is Force sensitive, she is not a Jedi but more of a political leader and Resistance fighter. In the case of Rey, however, she is still not fully equipped to be an official Jedi. And depending on what is going to happen during her time with Luke in "Episode VIII," she may or may not be the one.
Folks over at Collider Jedi Council note that with everything that "The Force Awakens" set up just to find Luke and his very limited screen time in the J.J. Abrams film, it is only reasonable that he becomes the focal point of "Episode VIII." It is important to remember that up to this point, no one knows what Luke had been up to in the last couple of years since he went into hiding. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) revealed in "Episode VII" that after Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) went rogue, Luke decided to find the first Jedi Temple. Unfortunately, it was not revealed why the Jedi Master was looking for it.
With "Episode VIII" picking up exactly where its predecessor has left off, fans can assume that there will be some form of explanation from Luke as to what had happened to him.
In terms of the post-production for the upcoming "Star Wars" saga film, director Rian Johnson teased the iconic crawl for "The Last Jedi" by posting a photo of himself already working on it. Fans have missed the opening shot last year, with the franchise's standalone project "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" ditching it for the first time.
"Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi" will hit theaters Dec. 15.
