Most movie novelizations nowadays don’t hold too much interest for fans, but that’s not true when it comes to Star Wars. The books based on the hit films always feature some intriguing new details and scenes that weren’t depicted on the big screen, helping to flesh out the world and its characters just that little bit more.
The novelization for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is set to continue that trend, too, as writer/director Rian Johnson collaborated with author Jason Fry to create some fresh material for the book. The most significant new scene from what we know so far is Han Solo’s funeral, following on from his death at the hands of his own son, Kylo Ren, in The Force Awakens.
But that’s not all, as we’re now learning that the novel mentions Luke’s wife. From what we’ve heard, the very first line reads, “Luke Skywalker stood in the cooling sands of Tatooine, his wife by his side.” On the one hand, this isn’t hugely surprising, as we know that in the Star Wars Legends books, the character was married. But those were made non-canon, which makes this particular line pretty interesting, as we presume that The Last Jedi novelization is canon.
The most likely explanation for this, then, is that it’s some kind of “alternate future” that Luke sees perhaps while meditating. Maybe thinking about what life could have been had he chosen a different path. After all, he can’t possibly be married to a woman in this continuity as he’s already married to the Force. It’s his number one focus in life and to have a wife just wouldn’t fit in with his arc in the Sequel Trilogy.
Still, you can’t deny that it would have been kind of neat to see this moment in the film, with Rian Johnson possibly showing us Luke filled with regret over the path that the Force has brought him down, imagining how things could’ve turned out had he abandoned it. Not to mention that a nod to his non-canon wife, Mara Jade, would have been cool for the hardcore Star Wars fans among us.
Anyways, for those interested, you can get your hands on Star Wars: The Last Jedi – The Novelization when it hits store shelves on March 6th (pre-order on Amazon here). As for the movie, it’s still playing in theaters across the globe, with its current box office haul sitting at $1.32 billion.