Just a few days ago the Star Wars galaxy got great news as the next Star Wars movie, Episode VIII received it’s official title – The Last Jedi.  This spawned a lot of excitement among the fans but the release of the poster that featured red font also spawned a bunch of questions.  One being, who is “The Last Jedi” that the title refers to?  Who knows really what plans the next story has but I wanted to dive into a few of these topics and let you know my thoughts.

Let’s start with the end of Return of the Jedi after Vader passed his son Luke Skywalker was the last living Jedi Knight, or was he?  Just last year we saw the release of the Force Awakens – Episode VII in the series which takes place 30 years after the Return of the Jedi. This also took place after Luke Skywalker had tried to re-unite the Jedi order with a new generation of Jedi.  During the Force Awakens we learn that those young Jedi trained up by Luke were killed by Kylo Ren.  So with that said it raises massive questions about the new title for Episode VIII of The Last Jedi as Kylo Ren was a force sensitive and once fought for the side of good but was quickly taken by the Dark Side of the force.

During Episode VII we also got to meet Rey, which was a very mysterious young girl who we learn during the film was a force sensitive that saw her powers quickly develop. Her force powers came to light pretty quickly during her confrontation with Kylo Ren so it begs the question is she a Jedi? At the end of the Force Awakens, Rey finds Luke on his island hiding place of Ahch-To which brought to light that we now have a Jedi Master, and what could be the next Jedi apprentice! This was such an epic part of the film as Rey delivers the original lightsaber to Luke opening up so many questions, excitement for the next film, and wonder of whats going to happen next.

Now back to our first question of who is the Last Jedi from the new title of Episode VIII? Does this refer to Luke himself, or does the title refer to “Jedi” which can also be plural or singular.  Are we looking at Luke and Rey being the last Jedi in the universe? This title may even refer to a next generation of Jedi from which we see Rey showing force traits in the Force Awakens.  As we know the Force Awakens was a passing of the torch type film for the old generation to the new. What about Kylo Ren as we know he destroyed the generation of Jedi that Luke was training so maybe we will see a rejuvenated Luke when he learns of Rey’s force abilities? This is all speculation of course but these are the thoughts that have been running through my head since seeing the new title for Episode VIII.

I am very excited to see the new film, and I know you all are as well!  Does the Last Jedi refer to Luke from the old generation and the new film is going to be another push on passing the torch to this new generation?  In the Force Awakens the opening roll talked of the Rebel hero as “The Last Jedi” so who is this mysterious Rebel Hero, or Last Jedi?