Star Wars: The Last Jedi dropped its first teaser trailer, and it left us with one huge question: why the heck would Luke want to end the Jedi?
But after thinking about that question longer, his potential motivations started to become clear. Rewatch the trailer below, and continue reading for our theory on why the new hope for the Jedi would want to see the order end.
“Breathe. Just breathe. Now, reach out - whaddya see?”
“Light. Darkness. The Balance.”
“It’s so much bigger.”
The final words of The Last Jedi’s new trailer - “it’s time for the Jedi to end” - have already stirred up a lot of questions (“what?”, “why?”, “is there, like, a lightsaber amnesty, or do we just trust all the ex-Jedi not to use theirs?”), but it’s the exchange above, from earlier in the teaser, that might provide the answers.
Luke Skywalker’s entire life has been defined by the struggle between Light and Dark, and his place on that scale. Now, it seems to me, Luke doesn’t seem to be shifting along the scale so much as jumping off of it and telling Rey how badly made it is.
We’ve seen and heard of countless Jedi being seduced by the Dark Side, but this is more complex than a simple heel turn. In fact, it feels like a nuclear option. Why would you end the Jedi? Because there might be less trouble without them.
To me, it feels as though it’s not the Dark Side, but The Balance that Luke’s come to rail against - the boom-and-bust spiritual economics that leads to all these gosh darned Star Wars in the first place. By removing the Jedi from the equation, the Sith loses its biggest recruitment drive and, in theory, the conflict that comes from the two clashing (or, more insidiously, each side encouraging others to clash, as was the case in the first two trilogies) comes to an end.
It feels like Star Wars’ classic spiritual baseline - that the yin-yang always spins, light and dark each powering the other - is finally being questioned. If I was really going to disappear into my own remote Jedi cave, I’d say Luke’s embracing a philosophy more like Absurdism - that there’s no meaning in an endlessly chaotic universe other than the one you create. After all, he does end the trailer with:
“I only know one truth. It’s time for the Jedi to end.”
Unless he’s secretly gone full Sith, that truth doesn’t seem to have much to do with bringing balance to the Force, and it certainly doesn’t seem to put much stock in the whole Light-Dark thing.
The reasoning for all of this could be even more personal than it is philosophical - without the Jedi his father wouldn’t be a dead maniac, his crop of new trainees wouldn’t have been massacred by his own nephew, he might not have a hand that gets fridge magnets stuck to it. Perhaps he just doesn’t want others to get caught up in the same cycle.
It makes for an interesting comparison point with The Empire Strikes back. Yoda’s self-imposed exile seemingly only strengthened his belief in the Jedi, and that rubbed off on his padawan. Luke’s ruminations while on his island have clearly given him space to think beyond simple Jedi concerns (“It’s so much bigger”), Who knows what that means for Rey in her training - she might be training to fight like a Jedi, but what will she be fighting for?
There are counterpoints, of course - theories about Luke becoming a “gray Jedi” (one who utilizes both sides of the Force) have been popping up since The Force Awakens. There’s also a readopted idea from George Lucas’ original trilogy plans, the Whills; deeply Force-connected, possibly immortal beings that were said to embrace the whole spectrum of the Force. Perhaps Luke wants to end the Jedi in order to restart the Order of the Whills (incidentally, there’s already debate about whether the book seen in the new teaser is the Order’s Journal of the Whills).
Both of those ideas still embrace an idea that Light, Dark and Balance exist, however. If Luke thinks it’s bigger than all that, I’d still lean towards the idea that he’s trying to abandon the mechanisms that keep all of that conflict whirring along.
If that is the case, it could make Luke the Star Wars universe’s most interesting character - someone attempting to look beyond good and evil, one side or the other, and create a galaxy that allows for everyone to exist, rather than just the winning side. I might just agree with him that the Jedi Order needs to end, if only to see him become that person.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and he desperately hopes for a Bor Gullet cameo. Follow him on Twitter.
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