The Last Jedi — Let’s Overanalyze The Title Of Star Wars: Episode 8
Lucasfilm dropped a bomb on the internet this morning in the form of a title announcement for the forthcoming Star Wars Episode 8. We now know that it will be subtitled, The Last Jedi. If you’re a Star Wars fan, this should immediately start your mind racing to puzzle through what it could possibly mean. I have zero inside information and haven’t read any leaked spoilers, so what follows is just an exercise in conjecture. I just think it’ll be fun to talk about what the title could imply.
Singular or Plural?
The tricky thing about the word “Jedi” is that it can be a singular or a plural. For instance, though the subject of the title Return of the Jedi could be seen as referring to Luke Skywalker singly, I always took it to mean that Luke’s becoming a Jedi Knight by the end of that film signified the return of the Jedi order as an institution (with the additional implication that he would train other Jedi Knights in the future). So in the context of the Episode 8 title, is The Last Jedi a reference to a single Jedi, or to a group of Jedi? If a group of Jedi, does it refer to all Jedi of all times collectively? Or does it refer to a specific group of Jedi who existed before the present? In other words, does it mean that the Jedi order has ended (or is ending) or is it a reference to the previous Jedi order that has ended either before Luke or in Luke? It’s hard for me to imagine that Lucasfilm is ending the Jedi order for all time given that the Jedi are so popular and (perhaps more importantly to parent company Disney) the Jedi “brand” is so well known. If it’s merely a reference to the end of the old Jedi order it could be that Lucasfilm is setting up a new group of Jedi.
The First of the New…
My wife was impressed that I recalled the following bit of text from my twenty-five year old copy of Timothy Zahn’s Heir To The Empire novel, the book which set into motion what is now called “the expanded universe” but was once considered Star Wars “canon” before Disney bought the rights to Star Wars. In chapter two, Luke has a vision of Obi-wan Kenobi and the following exchange occurs:
But Ben turned, and the image faded… and in the dream, Luke knew he was gone. “Then I am alone,” he told himself. “I am the last of the Jedi.” He seemed to hear Ben’s voice, faint and indistinct, as if from a great distance. “Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new.”
I haven’t read that book since 1992, but that passage made an impression on me then and I recalled it immediately when the news of the new film’s title broke this morning. We know from The Force Awakens that Luke indeed tried to train a group of young people to become Jedi, presumably including Han and Leia’s son Ben (who later took the name Kylo Ren). When that failed, he went into exile for reasons that we’ll probably learn more about in Episode 8. Perhaps Rey can convince Luke, the last (of the old) Jedi to train her and start a new Jedi order.
If You Strike Me Down…
A more morbid potential interpretation of the title is that Luke dies in Episode 8, leaving Rey with unstarted or incomplete training and thus ending the Jedi order, though not necessarily permanently. Something similar happened, of course, in the original Star Wars film. Ben Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the Force and starts Luke on his hero’s journey. But Ben dies in a duel with Darth Vader, allowing Vader to strike him down. Afterward he is able to appear to Luke as a Force ghost and guide him in ways he could not have before, as when he speaks to Luke during the Death Star trench run and then later appears to him in the snows of Hoth. Perhaps in Episode 8 Luke begins to train Rey but is cut down by Kylo Ren late in the film, thus ending the order of the Jedi (at least until Rey can pick up the mantle fully in Episode 9). This is all idle speculation of course, but given how slavishly conservative Lucasfilm was with Episode 7 in having it mimic the plot of the original Star Wars film so closely, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them follow this pattern again.
Bringing Balance to the Force…
This third potential meaning is my least favorite. As I’ve written before, I don’t understand the Force and I’m not sure the Star Wars writers do either. The prequels bogged us down in prophecies about the Force and a chosen one, etc. What if the writers now believe that the ultimate expression of the Force would be an individual within whom the Light and Dark side are perfectly balanced? Whereas the Jedi followed only the Light side and the Sith only the Dark, what if Rey becomes the first individual to harness both sides equally? I don’t like that idea because I like the idea of good and evil being distinct and separate things. (I certainly believe that to be the case in reality.) But in our postmodern culture, I wonder if the writers want to take things in a new direction.
Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi hits theaters this December, so we have an entire year to continue speculating (or at least until we see trailers later this year). What do you think the title means? Is one of my musings correct? Are there other interpretations I haven’t considered? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
