‘Star Wars: Episode 9’: Luke’s Story To Continue, Key ‘The Last Jedi’ Scene Sets Up Greater Role

Now that Star Wars: Episode 8—The Last Jedi is out, fans, while still dissecting the longest film in the franchise’s history, are slowly turning their attention to the third and final chapter of the trilogy.

The first piece of news to come out about Star Wars: Episode 9 after The Last Jedi release is that J.J. Abrams, who will be back to direct and write the script for the film, has submitted his first pitch to Disney chief Bob Iger.

According to Heroic Hollywood, he penned the script with Chris Terrio, who is known for his work on Argo, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League.

Spoiler warning! Star Wars: The Last Jedi plot details will be discussed below. Read at your own discretion.

The publication says that Mark Hamill is “expected” to reprise his role as the legendary Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode 9 despite his fate in The Last Jedi—he ascended to became one with the Force after his draining final act of heroism to help his sister Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the Resistance.

Indeed, in the world of Star Wars, death does not always mean the end of the line for a character. This is especially true for Force users. A good example is The Last Jedi, which featured an appearance of Yoda, who dropped some Jedi and Force wisdom on Luke that he sorely needed to hear.

It is expected, however, that Luke will be featured in Star Wars: Episode 9 to a much greater degree than anticipated even though he is expected to return in the same form as Yoda did.

The Last Jedi set up his expanded involvement with the scene with Yoda summoning a lightning strike to burn down the Force tree on the planet Ahch-To.

This implied, as pointed out by the popular pop culture watcher and YouTuber Charlie Schneider aka Emergency Awesome, that Force ghosts can do more than just communicate with the living, which is what the Star Wars films before The Last Jedi, have only shown so far—they can also physically interact with them.

While Yoda’s participation was kept short and sweet likely because it was meant to be just that while still impactful, Luke’s Force ghost turn is expected to be different and prolonged to best serve the story.

Yoda’s The Last Jedi scene shows that Luke can do what his former master did in Force ghost mode in Star Wars: Episode 9 as he completes Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) training, if this is the plan.

More importantly, it would make for a good excuse to give him extra screen time in the third Star Wars film, perhaps more than what any other Force ghosts got in the cinematic history of the epic saga—something that will please fans who were left heartbroken and upset by his death.

The same cannot be said about Snoke (Andy Serkis) though. His demise in The Last Jedi occurs very differently from that of Luke. The latter became one with the Force but the former did not.

After Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) cut his master in half, his severed body remained there. Star Wars watcher and YouTuber Bastion of Kuul believes that his fate was made clear with the scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi showing his glazed eyes and dangling tongue.

That being said, Kylo Ren remains the only villainous entity left moving into Star Wars: Episode 9 and the YouTuber speculates that the Knights of Ren might be brought back to bolster the antagonist line-up in the final film.

There is also hope for Snoke to return as fans want to learn about his origin, motivations and true intentions.

Star Wars: Episode 9 releases December 20, 2019. The Last Jedi is now in cinemas.