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Luke Skywalker returns in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, but not as a beacon of hope, setting Rey on a perilous course that could alter the balance of power in the galaxy
There are always two sides to every conflict: light and dark, good and evil. Which one is which depends on where you stand. But sometimes those sides intersect; one can cross over into the other, and it’s easy to lose sight of where you want to be.
The story of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (out on Dec. 14) will be one of dualities, of loyalties fractured and new alliances formed. Some partnerships, like the ex-stormtrooper Finn and the Resistance mechanic Rose, could inspire valour and bravery. Others, like the separated siblings Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, may restore hope that is dimming in each other, whilst the novice Force-wielder Rey and dark-side acolyte Kylo Ren could end up pushing each other astray, depending on who is stronger.
While that may seem unlikely, the second act of every story is where the heroes (and villains) are tested—and tempted. As writer-director Rian Johnson ( Looper) picks up the narrative after 2015’s The Force Awakens, his job is not to protect these characters but to put them in harm’s way.
“There’s a history in Star Wars of the attraction between the light and the dark, whether it’s the story of Anakin and his seduction to the dark side, or even with Luke,” Johnson says. “Even though you never really believe he’s going to go over to the dark side, the whole revelation of ‘I am your father’ has to do with Vader and this darkness that [Luke] thought he could just dismiss as ‘That’s the bad guy. I don’t have any of him in me.’ Suddenly he realises, ‘No, I come from him. I have quite a bit of him inside me.’ ”
That twist in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back established the second film in George Lucas’s space fantasy as the most beloved in an already worshipped series. It knocked the story off balance. It made fans think, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” The Last Jedi stands in a very long shadow. But it aims to cast shadows of its own.
The Scavenger and the Fallen One
He hates her. This girl. This garbage picker. This amateur who somehow drew his family lightsaber to her hand, overpowering his own bond with the Force. And yet, Adam Driver says Kylo Ren can’t help but harbour an admiration for Daisy Ridley’s Rey. (This probably burns at Kylo, too.) “He has been aware of this ability in himself from such a young age, and I don’t think there are a lot of people around him who are on the same level,” the actor says. “There is something familiar there [in Rey], as well as something to be feared, or something … that he can’t quite place.”
In the last film, Kylo Ren succeeds not just in (spoiler alert) killing his father, Han Solo, but of ending his former self: Ben Solo, the son of the smuggler and the princess-turned-general Leia Organa. Rey did the same. She was no longer the nobody, the outcast, the forgotten child living in a wasteland. She had forged a new identity and destiny for herself. But both she and Kylo know what it’s like to feel abandoned.
Driver says Kylo turned against his mother and father because he felt they cared more about the Rebellion and rebuilding after the Empire than they cared about him. “The idea of someone whose parents are very much devoted to the cause, that’s something a lot of people could relate to, whether it be religion or politics or a business,” Driver says. “Not identifying with [that cause] yourself, I think can give someone a complex.”
When Rey feels rejected by Luke Skywalker, who also sees parallels between the power in her and the abilities of his estranged nephew, he inadvertently pushes them towards each other. “This is very much about Rey trying to figure out how she fits into all this, much like any of us as we’re transitioning from childhood into adulthood,” Johnson says. “You’re going to meet people who you think are going to help who don’t. And help will also come from unexpected places.”
For Kylo, that help came from a malevolent place—the First Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke, a twisted and battle-scarred alien overlord who enhanced the boy’s strength with the Force by nurturing his rage. Andy Serkis, who plays Snoke via motion capture, says the demagogue recognises the power of two, which is why he also mentored General Hux, the snarling First Order commander played by Domhnall Gleeson.
“Part of the manipulation is playing [Hux and Ren] against each other,” Serkis says. “But [Snoke’s] training of Kylo Ren is not yielding what he wants. Therefore, his anger towards Kylo is intense. He can’t bear weakness in others. And so he puts Kylo Ren through it, really.” Rey may be a tantalising new pupil. Someone to make Kylo pick up the pace. Or maybe replace him.