"It's So Much Bigger" - Thoughts on Luke Skywalker & The Last Jedi

It's no secret that I'm a massive Luke Skywalker fan and now I've had some time to process The Last Jedi's incredible teaser trailer (and re-watch it like 10 times) I can't help but speculate on where they might be going with the character in both The Last Jedi and the sequel trilogy in general.

My first thoughts on watching it (besides the typical OMG that was amazing) were this reminds me so much of The New Jedi Order.  But more on that in a moment.  It also reminded me of speculation I had for Luke following EW's preview article on The Force Awaken's back in 2015.  And Daisy Ridley's comment at the panel about being careful of meeting your heroes also reminded me of that.

"Who is Luke Skywalker?" That was the question that ultimately convinced J.J. Abrams to do The Force Awakens.  EW wrote;

"After all these years, we thought we knew him, but what if there was more to that Tatooine farmboy? Or… what if there was less?"

Just like this new teaser has fans speculating what the end of the Jedi could mean, that question, "what if there was less?", really got inside my head.  Back then I wrote this;

"Our only image of him is alone with only his faithful droid by his side.  In those circumstances, has Luke become less than what we expected him to after Return of the Jedi?  Is then Luke's story in this trilogy a different form of redemption story?  Redemption not from his own dark side but from his inaction allowing darkness to rise and spread in the galaxy?  An arc that will see him leave his apparent isolation to finally fulfil Yoda's instruction, passing on what he has learned and bringing back the Jedi."

It was speculation based on a single image in the teaser trailer but nothing in the film really changed it.  If anything Luke was more alone because he didn't even have Artoo with him.

"It's time for the Jedi to end."

Is this Luke at his lowest?  In isolation.  Defeated.  Unwilling to try again after Ben's betrayal and the massacre of his fledgling Jedi Order.  Twice now a promising Jedi has fallen and all Luke's done is repeat the mistakes of the past.

At its simplest this could be a story of Rey bringing Luke out of his isolation and back to the Jedi, convincing him the Order is worth reviving (basically the arc I speculated back before The Force Awakens).  But I'm no longer sure that's the case.  One line in the teaser changed my views on Luke's arc for this film and the Sequel Trilogy;

"It's so much bigger."

Like I said at the start, if there's one thing this teaser made me think of it was The New Jedi Order novel series and Jacen Solo.  In that series, before subsequent the retcons and Legacy of the Force debacle, Jacen reached a deeper understanding of the Force, a Unifying Force that encompassed both light and dark that he was able to balance within himself as he momentarily achieved oneness with the Force at the climax of the series.  That's really oversimplifying it but he also realised that this was not a discovery but a rediscovery of old knowledge that had been lost.

Luke asks Rey what she feels.  She speaks of the light, the dark and the balance.  "It's so much bigger."

We're told in The Force Awakens that after the massacre Luke sought the First Jedi Temple.  Could it be that here he made the same rediscovery that Jacen did in the old Legends series?  That light and dark are only partial truths and the Force is so much more?

From the beginning of the Saga we're told that the Force is out of balance.  The death of both the Sith and the old Jedi order in Return of the Jedi restored the balance (at least for a time) leaving Luke as the start of something new.  Could it be that in trying to rebuild the Jedi Luke unintentionally upset the balance that he helped restore?  Is that how Luke sees the fall of Ben and the rise of the First Order?

But his isolation had consequences to as the New Republic fell and Han died at his son's hand.

"Pass on what you have learned."

I always assumed this meant rebuild the Jedi Order.  But what if it didn't?  The old Jedi Order was far from perfect and it was only in rejecting Yoda and Obi-Wan's instruction to confront/kill Vader that Luke redeemed his father and succeeded where they failed.

"It's time for the Jedi to end."

Luke may be the last Jedi, but with new (or old) knowledge of the Force he may also be the first of something new.  Something potentially great, more unifying.  Something that's so much bigger.

A Stirring in the Force - Some Thoughts on EW's Star Wars Revelations

Kylo Ren, Photo by Lucasfilm/Entertainment Weekly

What a roller coaster it's been!  First Entertainment Weekly confirmed that not only would J.J. Abrams not be debuting a new trailer at Disney's D23 Expo this weekend but there'd be no new clips or behind the scenes footage either.  The no trailer thing matches his Comic Con promise of the new trailer coming in the fall, but I can't deny that I (like many other fans) was hoping to see something a little early at Disney's biannual event.  The real surprise is that there won't be any behind the scenes footage either, but he did promise something "compelling" for those who are attending Saturday's panel.  The poster maybe?  First looks at some of the new supporting characters?  Maybe our first look at Luke Skywalker?  Ok, that last one seems unlikely, as much as I want to see the elusive Jedi I've pretty much accepted that the first time we'll see him will be in the film itself.  And if Disney can truly pull that off without any images leaking it'll be an achievement worthy of a Jedi Master and they'll deserve a lot of respect for it.

Thankfully, Entertainment Weekly didn't stop there.  Yesterday they posted a dozen new images (like the one at the top of this post) and followed up with interviews with J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan that revealed a whole host of tantalising details about Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

You can see all the photos here
"Who is Luke Skywalker?" - Why J.J. Abrams ultimately decided to direct Episode VII
The history of Kylo Ren
J.J. Abrams discussed the new names and where they came from
Han Solo comes home

Mild spoiler warnings apply to most of the articles, especially the Kylo Ren piece.  The photos are pretty much safe and the Han Solo piece definitely is.  To give fair warning I'll be talking about most of the details revealed below so if you want to go into the film completely blind then stop reading now.  That said, there will be no spoilers beyond anything that's been officially revealed, only speculation.

After reading those articles there's certainly lots to think about.  So let's start where J.J. Abrams started.  With Luke Skywalker.

Luke Skywalker (?) and R2-D2, Photo by Lucasfilm

Whilst Han Solo has been front on centre since the second teaser was released at Celebration and we got our first real look at Leia in Comic Con's behind the scenes video, Luke Skywalker remains shrouded in mystery.  All that we've seen of him is a brief glimpse of a hooded figure in that second teaser.  And that's assuming everyone's guess is right and that figure is Luke!  It's interesting then that the question "Who is Luke Skywalker?" is the one ultimately convinced J.J. Abrams he needed to make this movie.

There's an interesting line in the article - "what if there was more to that Tatooine farmboy? Or... what if there was less?" - that made me think.  It's, roughly, 30 years after Return of the Jedi, what would you have expected Luke to do in that time?  Maybe it's because I've read a lot of the old Expanded Universe (now Legends) but I would have thought that in that time Luke would have followed Yoda's instruction to pass on what he had learned and found a New Jedi Order.  Based on what we know so far that didn't happen.  Luke hasn't yet restored the Jedi Order.  Thirty years after the Battle of Endor the Rebellion isn't a New Republic, it's a Resistance.  And Luke?  Our only image of him is alone with only his faithful droid by his side.  In those circumstances, has Luke become less than what we expected him to after Return of the Jedi?  Is then Luke's story in this trilogy a different form of redemption story?  Redemption not from his own dark side but from his inaction allowing darkness to rise and spread in the galaxy?  An arc that will see him leave his apparent isolation to finally fulfil Yoda's instruction, passing on what he has learned and bringing back the Jedi.  It would certainly be a compelling story arc and one worthy of Luke Skywalker.

The article seems to support at least some of these assumptions as Kathleen Kennedy is quoted as saying "we can't explore in quite as much detail issues of compassion, the way [Lucas] did in terms of the values of the Jedi. But we're going to get there, let's put it that way.  In the arc of all three movies, that will increase."  There's a few ways you can read this but it does hint that the Jedi aren't a big part of The Force Awakens, but that will change over the course of the trilogy.

Whilst the articles don't go into any real detail about the political landscape of the galaxy (I'd expect the details for that to be laid in next month's Shattered Empire comics and Aftermath novel) they do give us more insight into the masked face of the First Order - Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren and First Order Stormtroopers, Photo by Lucasfilm/Entertainment Weekly

His unique lightsaber, as many have speculated, is something he constructed himself and is, according to Abrams "as dangerous and as fierce and as ragged as the character."  The choice of the word ragged seems to imply a lack of knowledge.  After all, all Jedi made their own lightsabers and none had the distinctive blaze of Ren's blade.  Even Luke successfully constructed a stable blade after what amounted to probably only a few months of intensive training.

Whilst his lightsaber may be home made, there's history behind his Vader inspired look and mask.  According to J.J. Abrams the origins of his already iconic mask will be explained in the film but Ren "is well aware of what's come before, and that's very much a part of the story."

The real revelation however, is that Kylo Ren is not his birth name.  Like Darth Vader, it is a title bestowed upon him when he joined the Knights of Ren.

I'll admit, at first I felt that was a revelation that should probably have been left for the film, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised what a tease it was.  It tells us very little but opens up so many more questions.  Who are the Knights of Ren?  Where do the fit into the galactic landscape?  Are they a part of the First Order or a sect with their own agenda?  Is Kylo Ren doing their bidding working with the First Order or is he something of a renegade?  Where does Andy Serkis' Supreme Leader Snoke fit in?  I had assumed he was the ruler of the First Order but is he actually the leader of the Knights of Ren?  Or both?  And most teasingly of all, if Kylo Ren isn't his birth name, does that mean that his real name may reveal a relation to one or more characters we knew before?

Also interesting is that Abrams revealed the character isn't as fully formed as Vader when we first meet him in the film and goes on to say that "there are two sides to the Force. Both sides, arguably, would see themselves as the hero of their story, and I think that applies here."  This actually links very nicely with Kathleen Kennedy's comments in the Luke article that "We're looking, obviously, for aspiration, for characters who are conflicted between good and evil, dark and light ... George spoke often about that tension in everybody between what's good and bad.  He always felt that it was easier to be bad than good, I'm not sure all people would agree, but I think that that's always an interesting conflict to explore."

It certainly sounds like Kylo Ren will have a depth and emotional complexity to his character.  If he sees himself as a hero could he be convinced he's fighting for the wrong side?  Star Wars has always been a story of redemption so it's certainly possible, even if unlikely.

In addition to Kylo Ren, Abrams let EW into some of the secrets behind the names of our new heroes and villains.  Perhaps most telling was the confirmation that it's "completely intentional" that both Rey and Finn's last names are a secret.  It certainly adds more fuel to the speculation that at least one of them is related to one or more of the legacy heroes.  That makes 3 characters who could, potentially, be related to legacy characters from the Original Trilogy.  Let the speculation begin I guess!

And finally, J.J. Abrams has confirmed he won't be back to direct Episode IX.  I guess it was to be expected but with The Force Awakens looking so good I was hoping he could be tempted back to conclude the journey.  What is interesting (but also expected) is that J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan did map out the broad strokes of the entire Sequel Trilogy whilst planning The Force Awakens but it was only the very broad strokes so Rian Johnson still had pretty much total freedom when writing Episode VII.

With the D23 Expo this weekend expect more Star Wars news very soon!  If this much information has been released ahead of the panel I can't wait to see what "compelling" surprises they have in store!

 

Why it's Time for The Force Awakens to Reveal Some Secrets

Before anyone reads that title and gets worried I just want to say there are no spoilers in this post!  When I say "reveal some secrets" I'm talking about how the characters, specifically the legacy characters, will look in The Force Awakens.

At this point Star Wars: The Force Awakens is only 6 months away (and I get excited just typing that!).  The second teaser trailer at Celebration gave us our first look at Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) as well as extended looks at our new heroes Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and new villains Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie).  And let's not forget everyone's favourite new droid BB-8!  Last month's Vanity Fair gave us an even better look at those characters along with a behind the scenes look at Lupita Nyong'o in the motion capture suit that she's using to help bring the pirate Maz Kanata to life.  And then StarWars.com revealed one final photo - Andy Serkis, in motion capture gear like Lupita, and named him as Supreme Leader Snoke, presumably the leader of The First Order.

Looked at like that it's been an incredibly busy few months with more than enough reveals made to see us through to next month's San Diego Comic Con.  Especially with Rebels returning this month, Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars Edition being fully revealed and this week's E3 bringing more news on the highly anticipated Battlefront and a new expansion for The Old Republic!

Sadly that was not the case.  Hasbro's 6 inch First Order Stormtrooper hit E-Bbay ahead of the official announcement that the first The Force Awakens action figure would be available at SDCC.  Then the real leaks started.  First a travel mug was found in Mexico that reportedly showed C-3PO's new look for the film.  Then, just yesterday, a first look at Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia leaked as well.

Hasbro's Stormtrooper hitting E-Bay probably isn't too surprising when you consider that the toys take roughly a year from concept to store and an image of prototypes for Rey, Finn, BB-8, Kylo Ren and Chewbacca already appeared online at the end of last year.  But the travel mug find and especially yesterday's leaked first look at Leia really got me thinking.  How much longer can Disney keep things secret?

Now, I'm not referring to plot details, those should be kept secret until the film's release and I applaud Lucasfilm and Del Rey's decision to limit the novel adaptation's release to digital until early next year.  In fact, I'd be more than happy for them not to release any type of synopsis before the film opens.  But the looks of major characters?  I think it's time for those to be revealed, especially legacy characters such as Luke, Leia and C-3PO who will be all over merchandise in just a few short months.  As long as revealing them doesn't reveal any spoilers for the plot then I can't see any reason to keep them hidden any longer.  I mean, sure Disney/Lucasfilm probably have a well planned publicity schedule for the film, but with leaks coming more frequently now maybe it's time for them to try and get ahead and do some big reveals of their own.

It's already been announced that The Force Awakens is going to SDCC next month with a special panel in Hall H on Friday 10th July and Hasbro set to make "a special product reveal" at their panel that same day.  With Ant-Man in cinemas later that month and Entertainment Weekly confirming that Hasbro will debut the first wave of toys at SDCC it seems extremely likely that Comic Con will be the place where we get the first full trailer for The Force Awakens and with it our first official look at Luke Skywalker and the remaining legacy characters.  At least I hope it is.  I would hate for The Force Awakens panel not to show Luke and Leia and then for Hasbro to reveal their action figures.  Or for both panels to avoid officially revealing them only for them to leak again.

The truth is, I can't see them waiting any longer than Comic Con either.  The merchandising onslaught of #ForceFriday will be less than 2 months away by the time Comic Con hits and you can bet things will start appearing on E-Bay in August or maybe even earlier.  Comic Con really is their last big, high profile, chance to debut the remaining legacy characters before the merchandise reaches stores.

Whenever Disney/Lucasfilm choose to make the reveal I just hope it's sooner rather than later.  Personally, I've avoided the leaked images of C-3PO and Princess Leia but I can completely understand why fans want to see them.  I feel like I've waited this long, I can wait a bit longer.  I really don't want my first look at these characters to be a grainy screen shot.  But the closer we get to the film the more likely these leaks are and the less impact the official reveal will have.  I hope we get another moment as memorable as "Chewie, we're home." from SDCC.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The Force Awakens - Trailer Analysis (No Spoilers!)

Ok, I was so hyped in the build up to this.  It had been suspected for a while that the next trailer for The Force Awakens might be shown at Star Wars Celebration but with the announcement of the live stream cinema events and then the live stream online it was all but confirmed.  I feel sorry for anyone that had to put up with me at work last Thursday because I was totally hyper.  I loved the first teaser but I was so ready for more!

The panel with JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy was a great way to build the anticipation, then came R2 and BB-8 (I love BB-8!!), our new trio of leads and finally the original cast.  I wish I could have been there, even on the live stream you could feel the energy in the room.  It must have been an incredible feeling.

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for;

WOW!  I mean I was just blown away.  It showed less than I expected (I was honestly expecting to see a fuller reveal of Luke and Leia) yet more at the same time.  From the moment Luke's narration began "The Force is strong in my family..." I had goose bumps.  When it was over it felt like I'd just been reunited with old friends.  I felt like a kid again, who'd just walked out of A New Hope in 1997 and couldn't wait to get his own lightsaber.  And the best part of not being at Celebration was that I could re-watch it again and again straight away.  And I did.  A lot!

Ok, before I analyse the trailer a bit here's the obligatory spoiler policy.  THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS.  Nada, zip!  I don't know, I don't want to know and I don't want to spoil anything for those who also don't want to know.  Unlike the Prequel Trilogy we have absolutely no idea where the story is going and I can't wait to be taken on that journey later this year.  Anything I post here is my own speculation based on what's officially been revealed in the teasers and at Celebration.

The teaser opens with an incredible sweeping shot of a distant speeder on the desert planet of Jakku.  Almost instantly the sight of a downed X-Wing in the foreground grabs your attention but as the camera continues to pan across the desert you suddenly realise that's not a mountain or dune in the background.  It's a crashed Star Destroyer!  It's a stunning visual that raises a very interesting question.  What the heck happened here?!

Thanks to Star Wars celebration and the upcoming DLC for Battlefront we know that the Battle of Jakku took place not long after Return of the Jedi which begs the question, what could have happened so soon after Endor that the repercussions are still being felt at the time of The Force Awakens?  Could this be the moment when the Empire becomes The First Order and the Rebel Alliance becomes the Resistance?



Luke Skywalker?



"The Force is strong in my family..."  This was my favourite part of the trailer.  I love Han and Chewie, but Luke Skywalker was one of my childhood heroes and just hearing his voice again gave me chills.  And the way it was done was simply perfect.  Teasing glimpses at the charred remains of Darth Vader's helmet, a robed figure implied to be Luke Skywalker and someone handing a female figure, implied to be Leia, Luke's first lightsaber before he tells someone unseen "you have that power too."

This trailer is like the perfect teaser because it just raises so many questions!

Who recovered Vader's helmet from Endor and why?

Is that Luke Skywalker?  If so where is he and is he alone?  Both teasers have shown us Kylo Ren with his extremely distinct lightsaber blazing but there's been a distinct lack of Jedi.  Luke was told to pass on what he had learned but it certainly doesn't look like he's rebuilt the Jedi Order by the time of The Force Awakens.  Has he even trained Leia?

Luke's old lightsaber?!  Last time we saw this it was lost on Bespin.  This wouldn't be the first time it's shown up again (it came back in the classic Thrawn Trilogy in the old Legends canon as well) but to see it again thirty years after it was lost certainly makes me wonder how it fits into the story.  We know Rey's a scavenger and Jakku appears to be something of a junk world so maybe that's the connection, but if so then how did it end up there?  Plus that doesn't look like Rey's hand passing the lightsaber to Leia.  And there's always the possibility that it's not been lost for 30 years...

"You have that power too." Though we don't see who he's talking to, the implication here is that Luke has found an apprentice.  Is it Rey?  Finn?  Maybe Poe?  Heck, it could be someone else entirely but I've waited a long time to see Jedi Master Luke Skywalker so I can't wait to see how this plays out and for Luke to finally pass on the knowledge of the Jedi.

The rest of the teaser has a faster pace as we get quick action shots of our new heroes and villain.  Poe Dameron flying the new style X-Wing over water.  Kylo Ren in action as everything around him burns.  Rey, Finn and BB-8 running from an attacking TIE Fighter.  BB-8 hiding on what looks like the Millennium Falcon.  Rey offering Finn her hand to help him up, presumably their first meeting.  But there's a few shots that stand out.  The first is this one;

The First Order

The new Stormtroopers look great, but what really caught my interest was the figure in black, standing in the centre under the banner.  Could this be the ruler of The First Order?  A new Emperor?  It certainly doesn't look like Kylo Ren but then we've never seen Ren without his mask on and the figure is too far away to make anything out.

There's a quick shot of what appears to be a TIE Fighter blasting the inside of a Star Destroyer hanger bay followed by Finn removing a blood stained helmet.  We know Finn is a Stormtrooper (or at least John Boyega implied he was at Celebration but he could have been messing with us) and that The First Order is hunting him so it's reasonable to assume he's defected.  But what has caused him to defect?  What's he looking at when he removes that bloodied helmet?  And is that him in the TIE Fighter, shooting his way out of the hanger?

Who is this awesome looking Stormtrooper?

The trailer closes with some fantastic footage of the Millennium Falcon being chased by a TIE Fighter into the wreckage of the downed Star Destroyer.  Then the screen goes black and we hear an unmistakable voice say "Chewie".  As we're given our first real look at two of the heroes of the Original Trilogy, Han delivers his already iconic line "we're home."

"Chewie, we're home."

Which of course begs the question, what's Han referring to as home?  It looks like they're on the Millennium Falcon.  But if Han hasn't been Captain of the Falcon for the last 30 years then who has?

The teaser trailer did a fantastic job of building up excitement for the film without giving anything away.  In fact it only served to raise even more questions that the first teaser from last year.  It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan and I can't wait to see what the future holds!