Star Wars: Episode VIII Will Be Called The Last Jedi - But Who Does It Refer To?

We now know that Star Wars Episode 8 will be called The Last Jedi, and is to be directed by Rian Johnson (who made the movie Looper), as revealed by Lucasfilm recently.

No sooner has it been tweeted than theories, thoughts, and speculation abounded about just who the title was referring to. After all, we now know the movie will now be called Star Wars The Last Jedi, but who is it?

Could it be Luke? Or Rey? Or Leia? Or maybe a new member of the Star Wars Episode 8 cast we haven't met yet? There's even rumors that Tom Hardy might be in the movie (but at the moment it looks like he might just be a stormtrooper). All this already and The Last Jedi isn't due for release until the 15 December 2017.

Is the term Jedi plural or singular? Questions, questions. It's already been pointed out that in the opening crawl of The Force Awakens story line that Luke is actually referred to as "the last Jedi."

"Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has vanished. In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed." it says. We also know that Luke was training a new generation of Jedi, including his nephew Ben (aka Kylo Ren). It's thought that when Ben turned to the darkside he massacred all his fellow Jedi knights, leaving just Luke.

It almost seems too obvious that's it's Luke though and Mark Hamill recently said in an interview with Uproxx that people shouldn't jump to any hasty conclusions. He wasn't even aware that Luke was referred to as the last Jedi on The Force Awakens' opening crawl.

"By the way, when you read The Force Awakens script, the very first two words are, 'Luke Skywalker has vanished.'" he says. "Ooh, baby, this is going to be good! I’m going to have a great part! But down later in the crawl, and I can’t quote it exactly, I saw on Twitter this morning, “until Skywalker, the last Jedi, is destroyed.” I thought, well, I didn’t know that! I’ve only seen it twice – VII, I mean. And I was wondering why they would use that phrase if it was used that way, because it specifies me. And I think it’s very ambiguous. Is the last Jedi Leia? Is it me? Is it someone we’ve never met before? Or is it Rey? Because she seems to have the force as well. So we’ll all wait and see."

If it is Rey it could mean Luke trains her (we know she's Force sensitive) and so there are now two Jedi, which means the title could be referring to the plural—or people have speculated that Luke might die, so Rey will be the sole last Jedi.

Or it could refer to Kylo Ren, who isn't the last Jedi but could have been one had he not teamed up with Supreme Leader Snoke. So Star Wars: Episode VIII may focus on him and maybe he's isn't completely lost to the darkside. Maybe Luke and Leia can save him, and maybe he becomes a Jedi and they team up to defeat Snoke in Episode IX in a nod to how Vader, at the end of Return of the Jedi, helped Luke defeat Emperor Palpatine.

Or perhaps the last Jedi is someone we haven't even met yet. Or maybe it's Leia, who we know is also Force sensitive. Or maybe we are ALL the last Jedi! Along with pondering who is the Jedi in the title people have also pointed out the color of the lettering, which is red.

In both the prequel and the originals, red lettering was used for the final instalments in the trilogies, and they also featured a darker tone with either the Jedi or Sith being eradicated. The fact that the middle episode has red lettering could signal a darker tone and also show how in this set of trilogies they're mixing things up a bit.

One last thing worth mentioning, it's also been pointed out how the titles from Star Wars Episode VII and VIII can be put together to form a phrase.

Which in turn inspired people to ponder how that phrase might end:

Either way, there's no doubt going to be plenty more speculation to be done yet.