When the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer arrived last month, fans were quick to analyze it for clues about the movie’s storyline. One thing that seemed obvious from the off is that a bulk of the film will see Rey trained by Luke in the ways of the Jedi. Just as Luke himself was trained by Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.
When speaking with Vanity Fair, however, director Rian Johnson made it clear that he doesn’t think there’s a “one-to-one correlation” between the two movies.
“There’s a training element to it, but it’s not exactly what you would expect.”
Due to the tight-lipped nature of Star Wars movie making, that’s all the director would reveal. Still, it’s a loaded sentence that should give us lots to chew on. In what way exactly is it not going to be what we expect? Going by Luke’s demeanor in the trailer, Johnson could just mean Luke will learn from Rey as much as she learns from him, at least in terms of believing in fighting for the galaxy once again. Alternatively, is this a hint at the ‘Dark Luke’ fan theory rolling around?
In any case, the fact that Johnson didn’t want to simply redo the Luke/Yoda aspect of The Empire Strikes Back will please those fans who felt that The Force Awakens was far too similar to A New Hope for its own good. Clearly, there’s a difficult balance between nostalgia and new material that needs to be met to please the wider Star Wars fandom. Let’s just hope that Johnson and his team have managed it with Episode VIII.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi stars Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran, among others, and is due to arrive in this galaxy on December 15th.