For all of its box office fortunes ($1.2 billion and counting), Star Wars: The Last Jedi proved pretty contentious among viewers – more contentious than anyone had expected.
But perhaps the one scene that really struck a chord with moviegoers was The Last Jedi‘s finale, in which we returned to the young stable boy marooned on Canto Bight. Inspired by the heroics and general kindness of Finn and Rose, the wide-eyed (and Force-sensitive!) youngster looks to the stars, invigorated with a sense of hope – hope that the First Order can be brought down to size.
For added effect, the camera cuts to a close-up of Broom Boy’s ring, which featured the famous Rebel logo encased in red, a recurring color all throughout The Last Jedi – from Snoke’s Throne Room to the mineral planet of Crait. And thanks to an exhaustive, spoiler-filled chat with Empire (no, not that one), Rian Johnson has explained his reasoning behind The Last Jedi‘s mystifying finale.
That was something I really stuck to, and believe me, we went back and forth in the editing room. In the script, when I wrote that scene in the Falcon, I wrote the words, ‘this seems like the perfect image to end on.’
Johnson continued:
To me, it was really important to have that final scene, because it turns what Luke did from an act that saves 20 people into an act that inspires the galaxy. The notion that what we’re setting up here is something big in the next chapter. And when Leia says, ‘we have everything we need,’ she’s talking about everyone on the Falcon, but also about what we see next, which is we now have a galaxy that has seen this beacon of hope and is getting inspired to fight the good fight.
And it’s that same spark that will help galvanize the Resistance in Star Wars: Episode IX. Originally earmarked for Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), J.J. Abrams has since taken control of a threequel that’s locked in for December 20th, 2019. More from Lucasfilm’s ever-evolving Star Wars franchise when we have it.
Published: Jan 16, 2018 06:37 pm