After seeing my thoughts on The Last Jedi summed up very well across the internet in the last few days (in short: I didn’t like it at all), I’ve decided to skip a blog post about the stack of problems with the film, and instead start looking to the next installment. I’ve almost lost hope for this trilogy but I still think there’s a chance for redemption, and currently feel slightly like Luke Skywalker in the Emperor’s Throne Room with Darth Vader. Here are my main suggestions on how to redeem the new trilogy in Episode IX.
Bring Back Snoke
Unless a new villain is suddenly going to be shoehorned into the final part of the trilogy, the dynamic looks very simplistic and boring, with a Rey vs Kylo movie in the works. A way to remedy this, and make up for the waste of Snoke in The Last Jedi, would be to bring him back into the fold despite his death. His origin is still a mystery, and no explanation or theory I’ve read really gives a satisfying insight into who he is or where he was during episodes I-XI. We know Snoke is powerful with the force and has a number of powers at his disposal. Perhaps a way to add to this would be to establish that he’s an ancient Sith entity that lives inside physical hosts to survive and exist in the physical world. In the existing films, he could either have been inhabiting a life-form somewhere in the outer rim, biding his time and waiting for Palpatine to fall, or maybe he was a spirit for all those years before finding his host after Return of the Jedi and forming the First Order in his physical vessel which visibly decayed under the strain of his power. Either way, this could be used to bring Snoke back in Episode IX and use a villain that is already fascinating and has been set up so well already.
Bring Back Luke
This is never going to happen, and even if it does it will only slightly make up for the travesty that was ‘Luke Skywalker’ in The Last Jedi. I would like to see Luke brought back as a force ghost in the next movie, which would open up the potential for some kind of bad-ass Vader-style hallway scene. Yoda’s lightning bolt in The Last Jedi introduced the possibility of force ghosts physically interacting with the real world, so Luke could still contribute somehow from beyond death. At the very least he should be there to guide and actually train Rey, maybe even with Yoda and the others. Or the final shot of Luke disappearing into nothingness on the island could be made to mean he was teleporting or going invisible, although this would be a cop-out that even I couldn’t really accept. Otherwise, they really need to figure out how else to get Mark Hamill back into a Star Wars movie so we’re not left permanently with The Last Jedi as our final look at Luke Skywalker.
Keep the Gang Together
In order to get the most out of the main characters we have left, and to avoid pointless detours like the high-society casino scenes in The Last Jedi, we need to keep Poe, Finn, Rose (I guess), and hopefully Rey and Chewbacca together on the Millenium Falcon. So far they’ve been kept far too separate, but a group mission would open up the potential for so much more interaction, and streamline the narrative in a way that leaves no distractions.
Bring Back Lucas’ Star Wars Stylistically
For all their faults, the prequels at the very least are full on Star Wars in their style. In any given scene you know you’re in a galaxy far, far away. This was lacking from The Last Jedi in my opinion, and needs to be done properly in Episode IX. One obvious suggestion would be to include Twi’leks. So far they’ve been mysteriously lacking despite being one of the most distinctive and recognisable ‘aliens’ in the franchise. I would also like to see more C-3PO and R2-D2 in the final installment since they’ve always been at the heart of the main films. Another element of this is my next point.
Introduce a Maximum of One Location and Explore It Well
The Star Wars galaxy is vast and full of possibilities of locations and characters so I understand the need to introduce lots of new planets to world-build, and also because of the unlikelihood of locations repeating in such a large galaxy. However, the downside to this is that not enough time is given to certain locations and we end up feeling no connections to the new planets like we do to Tatooine or Coruscant, for example. I think it would really bring the trilogy back to its roots if a location like Coruscant was repeated, or even somewhere less explored or established in the main film series such as Kashyyyk or Ryloth (see my earlier suggestion of more Twi’leks) to remind us that this is Star Wars we’re watching. Beyond this, only one more new planet should be used, and it should be somewhere critical to the conflict between the factions in the galaxy, not a deserted salt planet. So much context was missing in The Last Jedi and caused a lot of confusion, so careful location choices would make a big difference in the next one.
Heavily Use the Knights of Ren
Since they were established in The Force Awakens, it will be four years of waiting for fans hoping to see who these guys actually are or what role they were made to play. At the very least Rian Johnson didn’t find a way to kill them off too in The Last Jedi, so there’s a big chance of them being used next time, and hopefully not like Phasma was. This would also open up some options other than a bog-standard, predictable Rey vs Kylo climax. It’s unfortunate that they’ll have to be essentially built up from scratch for any of it to work, but I have faith that JJ Abrams will find a way given he was the one that brought them into existence.
Rework Rey’s Lineage
So we finally got our answer to the mystery of Rey’s parents; they’re nobodies. Or, maybe not. There’s always the chance that Kylo Ren was lying to Rey about his ‘vision’ and that Rey was too emotionally driven at the time to truly search her feelings. Among the many plotholes in The Last Jedi is the fact that if her parents really were nobodies, there would be no reason for anyone on Jakku to lie to her or hide the truth about who they were or why they left her there. Since Rey apparently never found out, I think it’s possible that in Episode IX we discover that they really were people of some significance and importance to the plot, and I hope this is the case.
Make Sure Every Scene is Consequential and Meaningful
With only one movie left, there really isn’t any more time to waste. The entire casino side-plot in The Last Jedi was factually and categorically meaningless to the plot, since the whole code-breaker thing ended up adding nothing to what eventually happens. In fact, there are probably around 45 minutes that could be cut without taking anything significant away from the movie. This time around I want to know that the quests and decisions of our characters really influence the wider context and all lead to the final conclusion to the trilogy, whatever that may be.
So there you have it. I doubt any of these ideas will actually make it to Episode IX, but I feel they would make for a much better film that would leave most types of Star Wars fan satisfied with the new trilogy.
The Blog of Sammy Shaheen 