16 Things We Want Answered in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

This is probably the biggest question people had walking out of the theater. Her origins were kept secret from the audience in The Force Awakens because there was already a lot of focus on Kylo Ren’s origins. Two big family reveals would have been too much for one film! People have lots of theories as to who her parents are. Could she be another Solo like Kylo Ren? Or maybe she’s a Kenobi. While that would be cool, it does make you wonder when Obi-Wan, who had sworn not to have attachments, had a fling. Most likely, she is Luke’s daughter. The Force Awakens does set that up as a possibility. There are numerous parallels between the characters like the fact that they’re both genius pilots, were both from a desert planet and have extraordinary talent in the force despite little training. Plus, Rey inherited Luke’s old lightsaber. Maz Katana said, “It calls to [Rey].” Maybe that means it’s hers because she’s Luke’s daughter. Of course, if she is his daughter, who’s the mother? We’ll find out this December!

Snoke is presented as a mysterious figure in The Force Awakens. He’s the top authority in The First Order and he keeps Kylo Ren and General Hux on a tight leash. We only see him as a giant hologram just like the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back. He dwarfs his minions in this form with his impressive size. Of course, he could be as small as an Ewok, but we doubt that’s the case. We have more questions about Snoke than his height though. We don’t know where he came from, why he wants to take over the galaxy, why he’s modeling his plan after the Empire (including repeating the Empire’s mistakes, seriously, why can a bunch of X-Wing pilots take down a planet-size superweapon?). Is Snoke a Sith? Where did he learn to use the Dark Side of the Force if their are only two Sith in existence, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, were killed at the end of the last trilogy? Snoke’s existence raises lots of questions about the Star Wars universe and would be rich territory for the new film to explore.

The group known as the Knights of Ren are probably more mysterious than Snoke. We only see them for a moment in Rey’s flashback and we know Kylo Ren is their leader. We know they are Sith-like Dark Side users, but they probably are not Sith proper. The Sith Rule of Two means there can only be a master Sith and an apprentice. Since there are six Knights of Ren, they probably do not bother with Sith rules. But we don’t know where they come from, what their place in the First Order is. We can guess that they had something to do with the massacre of Luke’s students since Rey’s vision revealed them to be standing near dead bodies. It’s possible that they are some of Luke’s former students who turned against him. Which raises the question, why did they abandon the Light for Kylo Ren’s darkness? Our speculations should be confirmed or denied when The Last Jedi hits theaters.

Losing all of his students to his nephew must have been pretty traumatic for Luke. We can’t blame him for taking a little time to himself and getting away from the galaxy’s problems. But why would he stay in exile? He has friends and family that he would want to remain in contact with. Can he not leave the planet he’s on? Is there something he’s guarding? Supplemental materials revealed that the planet he’s on could have the first Jedi Temple in existence and we know Luke was looking for that after his students died... Maybe his exile wasn’t intentional and he created a map so he could be found. Or he assumed R2 would tell everyone where he was. Considering the title of the next film is called The Last Jedi, and Luke is the last Jedi, it’s probable that the film will explore his motivations for going into exile and show us what he was looking for. Looks like Mark Hamill is going to have more to do than turn around and dramatically take his hood off!

By the end of The Force Awakens, the Republic has taken a hard beating. Five of the core planets have been demolished by Starkiller Base, wiping out most of their military might and the Senate. Luckily, the Resistance acted as a back up military force, but will they be enough to help the weakened Republic? Will there be a new Senate? What will happen to the citizens of the planets that were blown up who happened to be off-world at the time. And who will be in charge? General Leia Organa? Or someone else? These questions will probably not be answered in The Last Jedi itself, but rather in the supplemental materials. The Star Wars movies tend to focus on the action and the Skywalker story while the novels and comics deal with the fall out. But it would be interesting to have the horrible massacre of five Republic planets acknowledged and see some of the consequences play out on screen.

Like the Republic, The First Order has some rebuilding to do as well. And if they’re going to remain a credible threat, they’re going to need to recover fast. Will they build another Starkiller Base, just like the Empire built another Death Star? They are modeling themselves after the glory of the old Empire after all. Since the First Order will continue to menace our heroes, it’s safe to say that they didn’t put all their eggs in one basket and have a backup plan. Surely they considered the possibility their vulnerable base could be destroyed. If they were smart, they probably spread out their military power over several planets.  Again, the movies probably will not get into the nitty gritty of this. But a throwaway line of dialogue, a quick shot of the First Order building some new Star Destroyers could serve as a basis for supplemental stories.

Since Lando is one of the most important, popular and beloved characters in the Star Wars universe, it’s kind of surprising that he didn’t appear in The Force Awakens. Lando played a huge role in the Original Trilogy, rescuing Han and blowing up the Death Star. His absence leaves a gaping hole in the sequel trilogy. The audience is left wondering what he’s been up to. Is he working for the Resistance? Is he pursuing his own ventures? Did he have kids like Han and Leia? With so many questions, it’s odd that he was left out of the The Force Awakens and that Billy Dee Williams hasn’t been called back to reprise the role. Maybe the writers thought that Lando’s swagger and charisma would have taken away attention from the new leads. Maybe the writers are trying to parallel the original movies and will bring Lando back for the second installment of this trilogy. Considering that Lando is such a major character, his story shouldn’t be continued in supplemental novels. Hopefully we’ll see this smuggler turned business man turned general in The Last Jedi.

As Rey was exploring Maz Katana’s castle, she stumbled upon Luke’s old lightsaber. Touching it gave her a Force vision, showing her Cloud City, the Knights of Ren and her own abandonment on Jakku. Maz Katana explains that the lightsaber called to her (which we speculated earlier mean that Rey is Luke’s daughter). But when Han asked where she got the saber, Maz only said that that was a story for another time, which of course made audiences want to hear the story right away. This gap is frustrating because who doesn’t want to know how a lightsaber got from the bowels of Cloud City to the treasure room of a space pirate. Was Maz on Cloud City at the time? How did she recover the saber? And was the hand attached to the lightsaber also recovered? Maz was an interesting character before we knew that she had Luke’s lightsaber, but this makes her even more interesting. Someone who found and successfully hid such an important artifact has one hell of a story to tell.

Most of the parentage speculation has centered around Rey, but she’s not the only one with mysterious origins. Finn was taken by the First Order as a baby, and there are no clues regarding who his parents are. We can guess that they were enemies of the First Order, since the the military regime probably wouldn’t want to anger their allies by taking their children. Could they be members of the Resistance, wondering where their child is? Is Finn a Calessian, continuing on Lando’s legacy without knowing it? There was speculation that Finn is Mace Windu’s descendant. Though Mace Windu and Finn don’t really resemble one another. (John Boyega told a funny story where he met Sam Jackson and the veteran actor greeted Boyega with “You’re my son!” Boyega said that this was an important moment for him). Exploring Finn’s origins could expand on the character we saw in The Force Awakens and allow him to distance himself from the First Order.     

When the promotional hype for The Force Awakens began, it seemed like Finn would be the Force sensitive Chosen One. The image of him wielding a lightsaber appearing in teasers, trailers and posters. But when the actual film came out, it became obvious that Rey was the special one. She used the Force with ease and was ultimately the one to defeat Kylo Ren, kicking his ass into the snow of Starkiller Base. But where does that leave Finn? He’s able to use a lightsaber and in the previous canon only a Force-sensitive could do that (a normal person’s reflexes are too slow), but that might not hold true in the new canon. He does sense when the First Order destroys Starkiller Base. All these answers point to yes, Finn is Force sensitive, but there are some people who still wonder. Hopefully the next film will confirm or deny Finn’s place as a potential Jedi.

When we last saw Kylo Ren, he was bleeding in the snow after having his butt kicked by Rey and Finn. We hear Supreme Leader Snoke order Hux to fetch Kylo and say it is time to complete his training. One would have thought that Kylo’s training was complete already? He can do many Sith techniques like wield a lightsaber, Force-choke people, and use telekinesis. Though he never did use Force Lightning. Maybe learning to shoot lightning from his fingers is the next step in his training! All kidding aside, it’s going to be exciting to see Kylo Ren back and stronger than ever. It parallels nicely to Rey, who will also be training with Luke and growing stronger. Kylo is going to need to keep training pretty intensely if he’s to remain a credible threat against the heroes of the Saga!

When people saw Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma, they got hyped. The six foot, three inch actress creates quite an impression in that chrome armor with the badass cape! The character looks great on merchandise and on screen. But she never gets to do anything cool! She just gives orders. Finn, Han and Chewie easily take her out and dump her down the garbage chute! Maybe there are some deleted scenes where she gets to do cool stuff. She, Boba Fett and General Grievous make a trio of villains who have amazing designs but don’t do anything! We know that Gwendoline Christie is coming back for Last Jedi so we’ll see Phasma again. The only question is, will she be allowed to do anything cool? The last film really threw her under the bus, so hopefully Last Jedi will show off how cool she can be.

We’ve mentioned Kylo Ren’s injuries a little already. He was shot by Chewbacca, slashed by Finn, slashed again by Rey and kicked into the snow. But Kylo gave as good as he got. He slashed Finn in the back, knocking the lightsaber out of Finn’s hand and Finn out cold. Finn stays in a coma for the rest of the movie. We don’t know how badly the two characters are hurt. Though a Resistance doctor tells Rey that Finn will be alright. It’s possible that their injuries will affect them going forwards. They’re probably going to have scars from their ordeals. Though they will not need cybernetics. No one’s lost a hand despite the fact that they’re playing with laser swords!

This is a questions all the romantics have on their minds. With all the charismatic, attractive leads, one cannot help but wonder who’s going to get together with whom. Will Finn and Rey get together? That seems pretty likely since they shared great chemistry and are incredibly sweet together. This pairing is definitely a safe bet. But people are speculating on less likely pairings. Some are hoping that Rey and Kylo Ren or Reylo will happen. This is despite the fact that Kylo Ren is a horrible person who invaded Rey’s mind and killed her mentor figure. Not to mention the fact that they’re probably cousins. Lastly, people hope for the most unlikely pairing of all, Finn and Poe. This is unlikely to happen because Hollywood has yet to show same-sex relationships in their blockbuster films. If Finn and Poe do get together, then it would be groundbreaking for mainstream cinema. May the best pairing win!

And this is the questions all the cynics are wondering. Most people are guessing that Luke is going to die. After all, he is the mentor figure now and that’s what mentor figures do best. Impart their wisdom before departing to become a Force ghost. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that other characters can die too. Surely, some random Stormtroopers and Resistance fighters are going to kick the bucket in the epic set piece battles. Poe was supposed to die in the first film, so it’s not too crazy to wonder if they’re saving his death for future films. Carrie Fisher was tragically taken from us recently and the filmmakers may decide to honor her memory by giving Leia a send off. And they also will need to explain her future absences from the story since they will not use CGI to recreate her likeness in Episode IX.