Rachel Paige
December 15, 2017 12:45 am

Remember earlier this year when it was announced that the newest Star Wars movie would be ominously titled The Last Jedi — and everyone lost their mind and freaked out? Learning that there’s actually a last of the Jedi is a pretty big deal, especially considering the fact that the First Order is growing stronger each day, and Luke Skywalker is hella MIA. But does the “last Jedi” actually mean the last? Does it refer to one person, or multiple people? Is it about the last of a dying breed of Jedi, or more the fact that a new Force sensitive individual has emerged, and now she’s considered the last?

So many questions, so few Star Wars answers.

While we were all busy theorizing over this (read: actually freaking out), the thing is that Last Jedi director, Rian Johnson, told us multiple times that the title Last Jedi refers to Luke. He’s come right out and said it — at conventions, in interviews, in tweets. Yet the panic still set in, because what exactly does it mean that Luke is the last Jedi?

Well, having seen The Last Jedi, you now know for certain that yes, the title of the movie refers to Luke. The reference of the “last” is very much about the fact that he is one of a dying breed of Jedi. He is literally the last of his kind, who trained with a Master, in some sort of master/apprentice setting (and sure, he never became a true padawan, but that’s neither here nor there). Luke’s type of Jedi is a legend, a fable, a bedtime story — and we even see this at the very, very end of the film with the children in Canto Bight. Luke’s the kind of Jedi they read about in ancient scrolls.

So yes, he is the last.

But he’s not the last last of the Jedi. Rey is quite strong with the Force, if you hadn’t noticed. (And there are other Force sensitive individuals out there, too!) So no, the Jedi aren’t ending (very much to Luke’s dismay), but rather a new version of the Jedi is emerging. Luke was the last of his Jedi, but he’s not the last forever.