Will The Last Jedi destroy everything we think we know about Star Wars?
Was Yoda just an old fool? And why is Luke Skywalker calling for an end to the Jedi? Rian Johnson, director of Episode VIII, is veering into dangerous territory
The history of Star Wars has seen almost as much conflict between director and cast as between the dark and light sides of the Force. Harrison Ford once told George Lucas that the film-maker had no skill for writing dialogue while filming the original trilogy, and Mark Hamill has spent most of the past two years cheekily pointing out the errors he believes were made in 2015’s The Force Awakens.
Luke Skywalker should have caught that flying lightsaber after Finn’s defeat at the hands of Kylo Ren, not Daisy Ridley’s Rey; the Jedi knight
ought to have been present at Han Solo’s death, and he certainly should have turned up before the final scene.
Hamill admits he’s been wrong at times, but fresh comments the actor made at the weekend are worth consideration.
After reading the script for forthcoming sequel The Last Jedi, Hamill revealed he told director Rian Johnson: “I fundamentally disagree with virtually everything you’ve decided about my character.”
Ridley, meanwhile, has said The Last Jedi represents Johnson doing something “different” after the fan service of JJ Abrams’ Force Awakens. This confirms the sense that the middle instalment of the new
Star Wars trilogy is veering towards distinctly leftfield territory, just as 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back did more than three decades ago.
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We should not forget that Lucas took a huge risk with his follow-up to the film that ushered in the blockbuster era. The Irvin Kershner-directed Empire was bleaker than its predecessor, with its dark revelations about the true parentage of Luke, and that doom-laden title. By the end of the movie, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite, the Empire has indeed struck back, and Skywalker has been defeated and dismembered by his dear old cyborg dad. Where the original Star Wars made audiences want to cheer and holler in victory, the sequel encourages you to curl up in the foetal position and hope desperately for better days.
All indications are that The Last Jedi is heading into similarly risky territory after the warm comfort blanket of The Force Awakens. At the very least,
it seems likely that Johnson is about to start breaking some serious Star Wars laws. In previous movies, those who speak ill of the Jedi are usually firmly entrenched in villainy or at the very least well on their way: one thinks of Palpatine’s toxic antipathy towards Luke in Return of the Jedi, or Anakin Skywalker whining about his treatment at the hands of the Jedi council in the prequels. But here, in the new trailer, is a figure we trust implicitly – the central hero of the entire original trilogy – telling us everything we think we know about Star Wars is wrong.
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But wouldn’t dismissing the Jedi in such a manner rather undercut the original trilogy, in which Yoda and Obi-Wan are presented as untouchable paragons of virtue?
If the order’s central doctrine is meaningless, then both of Skywalker’s mentors are little more than fools. Johnson will have dug deep into the foundations of Star Wars in an effort to break new ground, and should perhaps not be too surprised if the walls come tumbling down around him.
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The entire original trilogy was about Luke’s path from farm boy to powerful exponent of the Force. Are we now expected to accept that this journey was a false one, that he was obsessed with reviving an order that had long since fallen into ineffectuality, guided by a pair of elderly diehards still clinging desperately to long lost grandeur?
It might just be that Johnson’s leap into the unknown is exactly what Star Wars needs to take it forward. Rogue One proved that the saga can thrive even when the Jedi are nowhere to be seen. But, if The Last Jedi goes too far, and cuts the floor from under the saga’s feet, it could find itself destroying not only the future of Star Wars, but also its glorious past.
