In honor of Star Wars Day, some new information has been released about The Last Jedi … and something that happened at the end of The Force Awakens.
The Force Awakens featured a very controversial ending that gave fans .2 seconds of Luke Skywalker with absolutely no dialogue and a pained look shared between him and Rey, who traveled from the Rebel base in the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca and R2D2.
Even Artoo felt slightly pigeonholed into the story because he remained “powered down” for a majority of the film. Then, he woke up at the most opportune moment with the remainder of the map to complete the piece BB-8 carried. While it’s hardly a secret as to what BB-8’s role in the franchise is, it’s hard to find someone who thinks the round droid is better than our favorite astromech named Artoo.
Which is probably why nobody questioned Artoo’s decision to accompany Rey to Ahch-To to find Luke. However, that wasn’t the original plan.
According to Entertainment Weekly, The Force Awakens‘ director J.J. Abrams originally had BB-8 joining Chewie and Rey on the trip. But then, The Last Jedi‘s director Rian Johnson asked for a slight tweak — switch Artoo and BB-8.
"“Originally it was BB-8 who went with Rey, which makes sense for the story in a way. But I asked, ‘Can you do me this solid and switch the droids?’”"
A solid, he says.
Recently, we speculated about Artoo’s role moving forward. We wondered whether he’d be around to help his old pal, Luke, once again. But since Johnson wanted Artoo to be with Rey, does that mean the little droid has a new Jedi to shadow?
Well, not necessarily. Basically, Luke and Artoo have been reunited. And of course, Luke’s journey continues to be the focus of the saga films.
"“Figuring out where his head was at was the very first thing I had to do when writing the movie. I had to crack this. And it had to be something for me that first and foremost made sense. Why did Luke Skywalker go off to this island? That was the starting point, and that’s what the entire movie explores.”"
To have Artoo there while we explore his motivations actually makes a lot of sense. If you’ll recall the first The Force Awakens trailer that featured Luke (just his hand actually), he was alongside Artoo, who likely witnessed the entire Padawan slaughter.
(10/10 would die if we see a flashback where Artoo attempts to intervene.)
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I like both droids either way, so I’m excited to see what they do next when The Last Jedi opens in theaters on Dec. 15.