If the end of The Force Awakens settled the mystery of just where Luke Skywalker has been hanging out all this time, The Last Jedi promises to reveal just what he’s been up to in that gorgeous, mountainous terrain. Now, in Vanity Fair’s big new cover story about Episode VIII, we get a couple of details about what his life of solitude on Ahch-To, home of the first Jedi temple, has been like. Apparently, he hasn’t been completely alone.
He’s been chilling with what VF calls an “an indigenous race of caretaker creatures” that director Rian Johnson describes, in a pretty harsh burn, as “not Ewoks.” It’s unclear whether that is meant to imply that they aren’t adorable or simply aren’t annoying, but that’s all we have to work with for now. According to Johnson, there’s a ”little Jedi village” on the planet, which was constructed by essentially replicating the real-life structures on the Irish island Skellig Michael, where they shot. The Last Jedi crew “duplicated the beehive-shaped huts where the monks lived on Skellig,” he says.
As previewed in the trailer and implied by the cast during Star Wars Celebration, Johnson also teases a complicated, possibly uneasy relationship between Luke and Rey, the visitor who comes to disturb his peace. He says there is a “training element to it,” but adds that “it’s not exactly what you would expect.” And that’s likely all we’re going to get until Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi comes out on December 15.