Come on, of course Luke and Leia will reunite in 'The Last Jedi'
There are some questions that answer themselves the moment you ask them. Case in point: "Will Luke & Leia reunite?"
That's the query gracing the main cover of Entertainment Weekly's special on the upcoming Star Wars sequel The Last Jedi, hitting newsstands Monday. The magazine doesn't exactly answer this question about the galaxy's most famous twins -- spoilers, sweetie! -- other than to say there's a "still a chance these two could find each other again."
Given that this story was produced with the total cooperation of Lucasfilm, among other pointers from the trailers, we've got a very good feeling about their chances.
Lucasfilm is great at keeping secrets, but it also excels at not steering fans in the wrong direction. With one of the most rabid fanbases in existence, the company has learned this the hard way over the years.
We've seen this in action throughout the pre-Last Jedi period. Director Rian Johnson has expertly set our expectations around the revelation of Rey's parentage, and also told us to prepare for a highly charged -- and definitively final -- performance from Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa.
But it isn't just the asking of the question: There was already good reason to suspect the Skywalker twins will have one last scene together -- and it has to do with an iconic, emotional image that dropped in a TV trailer for The Last Jedi on November 1.
Luke is seen turning on the lights in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, appearing there in a functional state of mind for the first time since the original Star Wars. And if he's in there at all, the Force is strong with the notion that he's on his way to Leia.
Why? Recall that the Falcon landed on the ocean planet of Ahch-To, where Luke has been hiding away since his would-be Jedi Academy was destroyed. Rey, Chewie and R2-D2 had shown up in the Falcon explicitly to return his old lightsaber -- and to bring him home to his remaining family, i.e. Leia.
Luke is afraid of Rey; we know that much from the dialogue in the trailers. He refuses to teach her the ways of the Force, at least at first; he believes the Jedi should end. In another more recent TV spot, he's seen yelling at her to resist the lure of the Dark Side.
So if he's on board the Falcon at all, it very likely means he's ready to leave Ahch-To -- and that his misgivings about returning to the Resistance, led by his sister, have been overcome.
Also, a Luke and Leia reunion would certainly meet the criteria for Fisher's performance noted by Johnson. Bringing the pair together one last time would certainly be emotional, intense and joyful.
Given that the movie opens with Luke staring at Rey and his old lightsaber with a face full of haunted emotion, him seeing Leia towards the end with a similar look would bookend the film nicely -- and contain echoes of the ending of The Empire Strikes Back, which The Last Jedi is expected to mirror.
The world will find out for sure when The Last Jedi opens December 15, but in the meantime we say: search your feelings. You know it to be true.
Topics Star Wars
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
