Needless to say, the poster for the latest “Star Wars” film, “The Last Jedi,” is beautiful. It’s a work of art. Its use of colour, its simplicity, it’s glorious – much better than the efforts of the last couple of years, which feature as many characters as possible crammed into a distractingly crowded one-sheet. Instead, the marketing team behind “The Last Jedi” have gone for a more simple look, with Rey (Daisy Ridley) holding her lightsabre in the air, with Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) face on one side of the blade’s glow and Kylo Ren’s (Adam Driver) face on the other.
But there’s more to this poster than meets the eye.
Look closely at the lightsabre’s beam
The beam of Rey’s lightsabre upon first glance just looks like the beam of any old lightsabre. But if you look a bit closer, you’ll see that there’s more to it than that. The design of the light is very deliberate. First, it’s a nod to the poster of the original “Star Wars” Film, “A New Hope,” in which Luke holds his lightsabre (incidentally the exact same lightsabre as is now in Rey’s hands) in the same manner above his head, with the same beams of light coming off it.
Also, the way the light spikes out from the focal point into a star with eight points at equal intervals with a circle in the middle is strikingly similar to the logo of the Jedi Order, which ties into the film’s title, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and the plot, teased by Luke in the trailer when he says, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” This is going to be a very Jedi-centric film, so it makes sense for it to have a very Jedi-centric poster.
And one third and final Easter egg: the horizontal beam of light at the bottom of the blade looks eerily similar to Kylo Ren’s evil red sabre, suggesting a dark and sinister twist that isn’t helped by the fact that about 97% of the poster’s colour is red. Will Luke be tempted to join the Dark Side like his father was? Perhaps Kylo Ren is the character with the Skywalker lineage upon whom the new “Star Wars” trilogy will focus, and the trilogy trajectory will go from dark to light to very dark.
Maybe that’s why Luke wants the Jedi to end. Maybe Rey will be the one tempted. Hopefully none of this is correct and we’re just being teased, but it would certainly be shocking.
‘The Last Jedi’ trailer released at ‘Star Wars Celebration’
The annual “Star Wars Celebration” has given a lot of fans “Star Wars” fever, from its touching tribute to the tragically fallen Carrie Fisher, who brought to life the feisty and iconic Princess Leia Organa to its reveal of the teaser trailer for “The Last Jedi,” which itself revealed that paper exists in the “Star Wars” universe (like oh my God, right?
But seriously, that had until now never been revealed, and it could be the Journal of the Whills, so we’re in for a mythology-heavy adventure later this year).
Unfortunately, the latest instalment in the saga, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which promises to explore the path that directionless Finn (John Boyega) will take for his future and, more importantly, will address who Rey’s parents are, which everyone assumes she has Skywalker blood because each trilogy thus far has focused on a Skywalker and we don’t know her last name and she has a strong Force connection to Luke’s lightsabre, won’t be released until this December (yes, that’s what this sentence was about before that massive detour), so you’ve got a few months to wait yet. In the meantime, enjoy the “Rogue One” Blu-ray, available now (Disney, give me a free “Rogue One” Blu-ray).