'The Last Jedi' director Rian Johnson explains that inspiring final shot

Spoiler alert: This story contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is all about moving on from the past – but its very last shot references a certain farm boy who's been around since the very beginning.

No, Luke Skywalker doesn't appear in that last scene, which shows a little boy casually using the Force to do his chores. He's dead by that point in the story, having spent the last of his energy on a virtual battle with Kylo Ren.

But his legend lives on. Just before that final shot, that little boy and his friends were recounting stories about Luke. That's the point of the ending, and why writer-director Rian Johnson told Entertainment Weekly it's "mostly about Luke."

You see, Luke is "the spark" – as in, the one that "will light the fire that burns the First Order down." (Poe Dameron's words, not mine.)

Throughout the film, the Resistance pins all their hopes on, well, hope. No matter how dire things get, they reject helpless despair. They fight to the end, waiting for their allies to answer the call. They save what they love, even when all seems lost.

And all does seem lost, at various points throughout the film. Rey asks Leia how the Resistance can rebuild when they've got almost nothing left. Leia reassures her that what they do have is enough.

Maybe it's because Leia knows what Rey doesn't – that even though Luke has passed, his deeds will live on forever. "Now the Legend of Luke Skywalker is spreading," said Johnson. "Hope is reignited in the galaxy,” Johnson said."

You see it in kids like the ones in that last scene. They're "no one," in the same way that Rey once was – they're child laborers forced to work in the fathier stables. But Luke and the Resistance has given them something to dream about while they huddle together or look out at the sky.

If that's still not enough to give the Resistance the upper hand? Well, maybe Luke can come back to help out his old friends one last time.

After all, The Last Jedi goes out of its way to remind us that Force ghosts are a thing. And Hamill might be willing, if it comes to that. "I’m just still holding on to the line, ‘See you around, kid,’" he said at a recent event.