I’d figured that actually seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi would sate my appetite for all things a long time ago, far far away. Instead, the reverse has happened and the film has totally reinvigorated my love of the franchise, thanks to its bold (and sadly divisive) style.
One consequence is that I’ve been hoovering up information as to what was cut from the movie, with director Rian Johnson teasing deleted scenes where Finn and Rose sneak through the “office area” of the Mega Destroyer and a “massive” training sequence between Luke and Rey.
But one of the weirdest things planned and discarded comes from The Last Jedi art book, which you can see below:
The caption for this reads:
“We’ve seen dead Jedi come back as blue ghosts. Maybe Sith can come back. And maybe there’s some all powerful Sith that’s controlling whatever the dark side is. We did talk a lot about how the final battle frontier for Jedi might be in the spirit realm. So you have to have a bad-guy ghost.”
While it might have been interesting visually, thank God this was left at the ideas stage. I’m hardly a stickler for continuity, but it simply doesn’t make a lick of sense that Sith would be able to return as Force ghosts in the vein of Obi-Wan and Yoda. Excuse me if I get a little geeky, but one of the more interesting dualities of the whole Jedi/Sith thing is their respective approaches to immortality.
Essentially, Jedi achieve immortality by letting go of their ego and becoming one with the Force. Meanwhile, Sith gain their immortality by refusing to let go of life, siphoning off the vitality of those around them or technologically augmenting themselves.
Anyway, Rian Johnson commented on the idea in a recent interview with LA Times, saying:
“We haven’t seen them in the movies as far as I can remember. But that would be really interesting considering the dark side is about self-preservation, trying to find immortality, and the notion that the light side actually got to it through selflessness — what would the dark side version of that look like? There’s so much cool stuff to think about if you’re willing to open your head a little bit!”
Personally, I’m glad this stayed at the concept stage and that the focus on the Jedi/Sith dichotomy was abandoned in favor of a more complex, almost holistic interpretation of what the Force could be. Either way, judging by Luke’s closing lines, I think it’s a decent bet that we’ll see him appear as a Force ghost in Star Wars: Episode IX. Let’s just hope that Snoke doesn’t rear his ugly head again, though.
