As far as Star Wars titles go, The Last Jedi—the subtitle for the upcoming Episode VIII—is pretty great. Mysterious, evocative, and a hell of a lot less cheesy than, say, Attack Of The Clones, The Last Jedi has had fans speculating for months about who it might be referring to. It turns out that we could all have saved a lot of time if we just asked director Rian Johnson, who seemed perfectly happy to spell out the obvious truth.
This is per Vulture, which reports that Johnson made the reveal to The New York Times, pointing out at least the surface meanings of the film’s title. “It’s in the opening crawl of The Force Awakens,” Johnson pointed out, noting that “Luke Skywalker, right now, is the last Jedi. There’s always wiggle room in these movies—everything is from a certain point of view—but coming into our story, he is the actual last of the Jedi. And he’s removed himself and is alone on this island, for reasons unknown.” So there you go (and they didn’t even have to recruit Judi Dench to help get it out of him).
Still, the on-camera mysteries affecting the Star Wars franchise aren’t as fascinating as the behind-the-camera drama currently affecting the films. Earlier this week, Lucasfilm announced that Colin Trevorrow was no longer directing the sequel to Johnson’s film, Star Wars: Episode IX. It’s unclear at the moment who’ll take up the reins on the film in Trevorrow’s absence.