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| photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
Your one-stop Last Jedi shop.
SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS STAR WARS MOVIES (OBVIOUSLY)
THE BASICS (SKIP IF YOU’VE SEEN A STAR WARS MOVIE)
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| good vs. evil, + lightsabers. photo courtesy of digitalspy.com |
So, for those who have never seen a Star Wars movie (and, like, what have
you been doing with your life?), the series famously takes place “a long time
ago in a galaxy far, far away.” The movies, loosely speaking, are about the
generational struggle between good and evil, which finds its primary
incarnation in the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Both sides use the power
of the Force, a ubiquitous energy field that surrounds and permeates all living
things… and gives Force-sensitive people a variety of superpowers, because why
not.
The Jedi use the light side of the Force, associated with humility, mercy,
self-defense, justice; the Sith use the dark side, associated with pride,
revenge, ambition, rage. Both sides also use super-cool laser-sword things called "lightsabers" to do battle. One particularly powerful family of Force-wielders, the Skywalkers, are the main focus of the Star Wars franchise.
A SUPER BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SERIES
The story thus far.
PREQUELS
The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), Revenge of the Sith (2005)
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| this pretty much encapsulates the prequels. photo courtesy of hollywoodreporter.com |
So about those Skywalkers. Anakin Skywalker
was an especially powerful Jedi, and he trained under another notable Jedi,
Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi. But then Anakin was turned to the dark side, and he
participated in a Sith plot to overthrow the Galactic Republic, institute a
Galactic Empire (under the Sith master, Emperor Palpatine), and kill all the
Jedi across the galaxy. He basically succeeded, and became the iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.
ORIGINALS
A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return
of the Jedi (1983)
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| photo courtesy of starwars.wikia.com |
Unbeknownst to Vader, he had fathered two
kids, Luke and Leia Skywalker, who grew up to be just as talented as their dad.
In hiding, Obi-Wan and another surviving Jedi, master Yoda, helped train Luke
into a Jedi who (they hoped) would be able to turn the tide back in favor of
the light side. Luke, along with his sister Leia and his friend Han Solo,
helped a Rebel Alliance overthrow the Empire, and in the process Luke defeated
the evil Emperor and turned his father (Vader/Anakin Skywalker) back to the
light in his final moments. Yayyy redemption story arcs.
Fun fact: the Rebels also blew up two Death Stars,
which were the Empire’s super-sized superweapons that could each destroy a
whole planet in one shot. Fun fact 2: During one fight with his father on Cloud City, Luke lost his hand and his original lightsaber (a scene that also brought us the famous "I am your father" line).
SEQUELS
The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017)
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| photo courtesy of nytimes.com |
By the time of the current movies, the
remnants of the Empire have reformed into the First Order, led by a mysterious
figure named Supreme Leader Snoke. Leia Skywalker heads the Resistance, which
works to keep them at bay. Luke, meanwhile, has disappeared, after his attempts
to restart the Jedi order went horribly wrong: his nephew, Ben Solo, turned to
the dark side (see a pattern here?), destroyed the Jedi school, and became First
Order enforcer and Vader wannabe Kylo Ren.
In the most recent Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, newcomer and talented
Force-wielder Rey—whose parentage is unknown—comes onto the scene. With her
friends Finn (a defected First Order trooper) and Poe (a Resistance pilot), she
helps destroy the First Order’s new superweapon, Starkiller Base. She also acquires Luke's old lightsaber, defeats Kylo
Ren in combat, and uses a secret map to find Luke’s hideout. Their meeting is where The Last Jedi picks up.
SPIN-OFFS
Rogue One (2016)
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| jyn erso being casually irrelevant. photo courtesy of denofgeek.com |
There’s only been one spin-off so far,
and it was about some of the rebels who helped the Rebel Alliance destroy the
first Death Star. They all died, and it will probably have exactly no bearing
on the events of The Last Jedi.
WHERE WE LEFT THEM
The relevant characters and what they’re
up to.
REY
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| photo courtesy of usatoday.com |
We only know bits and pieces about Rey
(Daisy Ridley). She raised herself after being abandoned by her parents, and
she has an intuitive grasp of the Force with little training. After getting
caught up in the Resistance’s efforts to destroy the First Order’s Starkiller
Base, meeting some new friends (including Leia and Han Solo), and besting Kylo
Ren one-on-one, she seeks out Luke so that she can begin her training to become
a Jedi. She finds him hiding away on the distant world of Ahch-To, and The Force Awakens ends at the very moment she hands him his old lightsaber. The Last Jedi will resume the
action there.
FINN
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| photo courtesy of bustle.com |
Finn (John Boyega) was a First Order
stormtrooper until he defected by helping Resistance pilot Poe Dameron escape
from First Order custody. He initially had some qualms about joining the
Resistance’s dangerous cause, but Finn rose to the occasion and helped Rey
confront Kylo Ren. Unfortunately, that fight left him significantly wounded, so
he was recuperating at Resistance HQ when Rey left on the mission to locate
Luke.
KYLO REN/BEN SOLO
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| darth vader's like "why are you so obsessed with me?" photo courtesy of starwars.wikia.com |
Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) has seen better
days. A hotheaded Vader superfan, he’s devoted to the dark side but constantly
troubled by a pull to the light. In The
Force Awakens, he seemingly put the conflict to bed once and for all by
killing his father, Han Solo, during the battle for Starkiller Base. To make
matters worse, he got his ass handed to him by a Rey, a total newbie, and
earned a nasty scar for his efforts. This is not a recipe for good mental
health. Although we last saw him on Starkiller Base just before it exploded, we
know that he made it off the Base (and presumably returned to Supreme Leader
Snoke to “complete his training”).
POE DAMERON
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| photo courtesy of comicbook.com |
Poe (Oscar Isaac) is a top Resistance
fighter and one of the best pilots in the galaxy. He was instrumental in
securing the map to Luke’s whereabouts and destroying Starkiller Base. After
the battle, he sits out the mission to find Luke, returning instead to the
Resistance base, where he’ll take on a larger leadership role in The Last Jedi.
LUKE SKYWALKER
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| photo courtesy of polygon.com |
We still don’t know much about what’s
happened to Luke (Mark Hamill) in the years since he turned his father back to
the light at the end of Return of the
Jedi. We know that he started a new Jedi academy, and we know that the
situation turned sour when he failed to realize that his powerful nephew was turning
to the dark side. In the fallout from Kylo’s fall and betrayal, Luke chooses to
abandon all his friends and seek solitude. His isolation remains unbroken until
Rey locates him at the end of The Force
Awakens. From what he can gather of Luke’s disposition from The Last Jedi’s trailers, his experience
with the academy seems to have left him pretty cynical about the whole thing—a far
cry from the unquenchably optimistic hero of the original trilogy.
LEIA SKYWALKER
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| photo courtesy of metro.co.uk |
Since Return of the Jedi, Leia has become general of the Resistance,
opting out of a role in the New Republic that formed after the fall of the
Empire. Her relationship with Han hasn’t lasted (maybe not surprising
considering their rebellious kiddo), but Leia seems to take to Rey. The Force Awakens brought good and bad
to Leia; she orchestrated the destruction of Starkiller Base and located her
brother Luke, but she allowed the New Republic capital to be destroyed and lost
Han in the process. The Last Jedi
will see her guiding the Resistance through the difficult aftermath.
Of course, Carrie Fisher, the actress
who plays Leia in the Star Wars films, died this year after completing her work
on The Last Jedi. Her participation
in this latest film will mark her final performance in the iconic role, so
hopefully the filmmakers can manage to pay her a meaningful tribute.
HAN & CHEWIE
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| photo courtesy of patheos.com |
So, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is dead, murdered by his son as he
attempted to reconnect their broken bond. RIP first of the original trilogy’s
heroes to bite the dust. Chewbacca (Peter
Mayhew), a fur-covered Wookiee, was Han’s loveable best friend and copilot of
their ship, the Millennium Falcon. Recovering from Han’s death, he accompanies
Rey aboard the Falcon on her trip to Skywalker.
DROIDS
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| photo courtesy of uproxx.com |
R2-D2 (Kenny Baker/Jenny Vee) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) are the
original trilogy’s robot (or droid) characters. Neither of them had much to do
in The Force Awakens, but R2 joins
Rey on her journey to Luke after providing the second half of the map to his
secret location. C-3PO sticks around the Resistance Base after the destruction
of Starkiller Base; new droid BB-8
does the same.
MAZ KANATA
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| photo courtesy of looper.com |
The Yoda stand-in character for The Force Awakens, Maz Kanata (Lupita
Nyong’o) remains a pretty mysterious character. She’s a small alien with a lot
of wisdom and a keen eye for the will of the Force. On her planet, Takodana,
she occupied herself as a “pirate queen,” running a castle that serves as a
meeting place for misfits from across the galaxy. The First Order destroyed her
castle in The Force Awakens, after
Maz helped Rey and Finn come to an understanding of their destiny/responsibility.
That’s the last we saw of her, but she’ll undoubtedly return for The Last Jedi in some capacity; she still needs to explain how Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber made its way from Cloud City to her basement vault for Rey to find it.
THE FIRST ORDER
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| phasma casually serving looks. photo courtesy of starwars.wikia.com |
Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis)
is another character whose history and motivations are currently up for grabs. We
know: he’s the leader of the First Order, he’s a powerful dark side user (but
not a Sith!), and he called Kylo back to himself for further training when he
got news that Starkiller Base was going down. We don’t know: how tall he really
is (he appears as a giant hologram in The
Force Awakens), what happened to his scarred face, or how he got to be a “Supreme
Leader.” From the looks of The Last Jedi
trailer, it appears we’ll be getting to know him up close and personal very
soon. General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson),
Kylo Ren’s only real rival for Snoke’s attention, survived the destruction of
Starkiller Base at the last second, along with Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie)… despite her being tossed into
a trash compactor by Han and Finn.
THE PEOPLE WHO PROBABLY AREN’T IN THIS MOVIE BUT WHO SORT OF EFFECT
IT
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| photo courtesy of moviepilot.com |
Yoda (Frank Oz), Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor/Alec Guiness), and Anakin (Jake Lloyd/Hayden Christensen/David Prowse/James Earl
Jones/Sebastian Shaw) have all been long dead by the time of The Last Jedi, but that doesn’t mean
they can’t influence the action. Case in point, Obi-Wan briefly spoke to Rey during her Force
vision in The Force Awakens. In a way,
it makes quite a bit of sense that they would be around in The Last Jedi—it’s not like they have anything better to do than
give advice to the remaining living Jedi—but it feels like Disney is trying to
move on, so I wouldn’t expect to see much of them. Likewise, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) is
a relic of Star Wars past. The smuggler/Rebel general became part of the main
cast of characters in the original trilogy, but he was nowhere to be seen in The Force Awakens and won’t be in The Last Jedi. Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the Sith master and overarching
villain of the first six films, was killed at the end of the Return of the Jedi. By all indications,
we should expect him to stay dead; Supreme Leader Snoke’s kind of covering the “evil
mastermind” thing now. Jar Jar Binks.
Hey, it could happen. It won't happen.
FRESH FACES
Important newcomers in The Last Jedi. Beware: light spoilers in
this section.
ROSE TICO
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| photo courtesy of movieweb.com |
A maintenance worker for the
Resistance, Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) unexpectedly finds herself swept up into
the front lines on a secret mission with Finn in The Last Jedi. What that mission might be we (obviously) don’t
know, but I think it’s fair to assume that the First Order will be pulling an Empire Strikes Back, trying to make a
statement by crushing the Resistance after suffering an embarrassing (and
probably very expensive) loss in The
Force Awakens.
ADMIRAL HOLDO
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| photo courtesy of starwars.wikia.com |
We haven’t met Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura
Dern) before, but she’s an important leader in the Resistance. From what we can
glean of her involvement in The Last Jedi,
it seems she might be something resembling an antagonist within the Resistance,
contradicting General Leia’s control and/or Poe Dameron’s increased leadership
responsibility. Whatever the case may be, she rocks pink hair, so there’s that.
DJ
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| photo courtesy of starwars.com |
Benicio del Toro plays DJ, a character
who will apparently have an important role to play in the ongoing conflict
between the First Order and the Resistance. At this point, all we can say about
DJ is that he’s a talented, shady figure who works as a slicer (Star Wars lingo
for hacker), a skill which will undoubtedly be useful to both sides.
ONE MORE THING
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| photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
About that title… who is the last Jedi?
There’s been quite a bit of debate on that point, but if you watch The Force Awakens, it’s actually pretty
clear: characters refer to Luke as “the last Jedi” over and over again. This
makes sense, because Luke has, after all, been the last real Jedi for over 30
years by the time of The Last Jedi.
What do we make of Luke’s being the last Jedi? It seems a bit odd considering
that Rey has gone to find him in the hopes that she’ll become a full-fledged
Jedi.
As far as I can tell, there are two
(highly speculative) options. 1) The title refers to Luke without prohibiting
the existence of more Jedi down the line. In other words, Luke is and has been “the
last Jedi” for a while now, but perhaps the main struggle of the movie is
whether or not he will continue to be the last Jedi indefinitely. Rey could end up joining the ranks after changing Luke's mind about ending the Jedi, or Luke could die
and Rey could take his place as the new “last Jedi.” There are some options
there.
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| photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
Watch the trailer here.
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| photo courtesy of starwars.com |
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