Does this weird detail suggest Luke Skywalker could be the villain of Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
Even Mark Hamill isn’t ruling it out
It seems fair to say that Luke Skywalker is not the man he once was in upcoming Star Wars sequel The Last Jedi.
Calling for the end of the Jedi, hiding out on a remote island and refusing to train young force-user Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the ways of his order, all the footage we’ve seen thus far seems to show Luke (Mark Hamill) in a darker light than we’ve ever seen him before.
Clearly, he never got to Toshe station to pick up those power converters.
So it’s no surprise that fans are already wondering whether Luke could be following in his father’s footsteps in the new film, turning to the Dark Side of the force just like Anakin Skywalker did to become Darth Vader (and his nephew Ben did to become Kylo Ren) before him.
There could even be a clue towards this possibility hidden in the new poster for The Last Jedi, which (as many fans have noted) features Luke looming at the back in the traditional placement for the franchise’s villains – most commonly Darth Vader, as you can see below.
In other displays, Luke is featured alongside the "good" characters and the "evil" characters in the new film, further suggesting there could be a turn afoot for everybody's favourite farmboy.
So is Luke turning bad, bringing darkness across the galaxy and finally ending the Jedi for good? Well, we’re not so sure.
Like the scenes in the latest trailer that seem to show Rey teaming up with Kylo (Adam Driver) we’re betting all this is a bit of a misdirect, and that Luke’s motives will become clearer when the film actually comes out.
After all, it’s not like this poster trend is even that reliable – the poster for Attack of the Clones had Anakin Skywalker at the back, and while he would eventually become Darth Vader the main antagonist for that particular film was Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku.
Still, Hamill himself does seem to be a bit of a fan of this theory – especially when you filter it through the old gag that Luke has always been a villain “from a certain point of view” (to borrow Obi-Wan Kenobi’s line from Return of the Jedi).
So who knows – maybe Luke does have some darkness to be revealed? Maybe he is still a good guy or maybe, just maybe, all these theories are ridiculous and the poster was formulated without specific villain placement in mind.
Whatever the truth, we’re still be staring incessantly at this poster for the next few months trying to glean any sort of clue about what we can expect from episode VIII.
Hmm… it does SORT OF look like Darth Vader, right?
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is released in UK cinemas on 14th December
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
