Ok folks, in just under two months we’ll be getting the final installment of “The Skywalker Saga”. Yep, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is going to wrap up the whole damn story whether you like it or not. Many people (as I’m sure you know by now) have huge problems with the “Disney Star Wars” stuff, for quite a while I was pretty damn perturbed about it all too. Especially with The Last Jedi. Then I’d read about how Disney bought the rights to the franchise and also got the drafts for George Lucas’ version of Episodes 7-9. Instead of fulfilling the iconic creators vision for his saga they decided to go with a more familiar plot, JJ and Rian Johnson delivered movies that are essentially soft remakes of the ‘Original Trilogy’.

When I’d heard this news something just clicked and I suddenly wasn’t upset with these new Disney Star Wars films. I realized they’re all essentially just high budget fan fiction films and that I’ll always have the real movies to watch. These new Star Wars flicks actually aren’t any different than the (much more superior in many ways IMO) Star Wars EU (Expanded Universe) material, or what they’re referred to as now, ‘Star Wars Legends’. Essentially all the non movie fiction stuff. I realized whatever Disney comes up with next really doesn’t matter much at least to me, in any real way anymore. Star Wars IS George Lucas, at the very least the sequel trilogy, 100% should have utilized his story for the final installment of The Skywalker Saga. Otherwise it really is just fan fiction with some big bucks behind it.                  

That all being said, I’ve still been wondering for a while just what this last installment has in store for Luke Skywalker, if anything at all. I then remembered JJ Abrams, a fan of Star Wars was co-writing the movie and it got me thinking, is he really going to sideline Luke? He’s got the chance to play with Luke Skywalker in his sandbox, one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. One last real chance to utilize the original actor as the character, c’mon is he really going to just have him show up as force ghost in a cameo?! Even though people swear up and down Luke is dead I really cannot fathom Abrams not giving Luke the excting moments, likely he himself and the rest of the OT fan base had been waiting for 30 plus years to witness on the big screen. How could a guy like JJ resist?

There really are so many likely scenarios that could be used to justify the character’s return to the flesh. It’s a damn science fiction fantasy anyway right?! We all witnessed Luke disappear with his robotic hand. Whether it was a mistake Rian Johnson made by accident makes no difference, it happened on screen. So, what if Luke used a new force power to teleport or open a dimensional door to the ‘Unknown Regions’ of the galaxy to investigate the disturbance in the force, which we all know now is Palpatine returning. Or maybe he merged temporarily with the force to gather some important insight or information? Whatever the case it’s not exactly unbelievable that a Jedi as powerful as Luke couldn’t pull something like that off and return back to physical form. If Palpatine can return, literally anything is possible. Let’s face it, Luke’s return in the flesh would be quite a twist for fans who’ve for the past two years have thought him to be dead. Sounds like something JJ would try and pull off now doesn’t it? Fans would go nuts.   

Next if you notice, Luke hasn’t appeared in any of the trailers, not even one glimpse. Why the hell not show him even for a second as a force ghost? It’s what everyone is expecting anyway, so it’d be no surprise and it’d likely get fans excited just to see Hamill for brief moment at least for the next movie. It’s almost like they’re hiding something for some reason. We all know he’s going to be in the movie and I’ve always beleived that if he’s not in any of the trailers, then there’s a huge chance he’s indeed not dead. Again, it’d be a truly great epic twist. We did get a photo of him in Vanity Fair (above) from Episode IX, but in the picture he’s wearing a glove on his cybernetic hand, which is quite strange for a force ghost don’t you think?                                                   

Lastly, lets not forget one thing that rules over all in Disney Star Wars….MONEY. JJ Abrams has a tough mission, to bring back the legions of pissed off fans. What’s the one thing he could do to bring them back to the franchise? Show Luke as a force ghost in a cameo? Hmmm…I don’t think so. What about giving Luke a real shining moment, or a chance even to be part of the real adventure like Harrison Ford got to be in ‘The Force Awakens’? Could the sequel trilogy, the absolute end of the Skywalker Saga, really end without Luke ever really holding a lightsaber for one final duel? The thought of that feels like a crime to the damn franchise. If Disney’s motivation is money (and we know it is) then featuring Luke in the flesh with a lightsaber will undeniably pull in hard earned cash from even the harshest pissed off fans. In fact it’d ensure multiple viewings and giving him something exciting to do this time around is guaranteed big easy money. I can’t think of anything, aside from maybe Anakin returning (which will likely happen as a force ghost) that’d repair the damage the franchise took from The Last Jedi, better than Luke’s redemption in the flesh. Why kill off Luke anyway? He could be utilized as a sort of Gandalf type of Jedi wizard in the future, killing him is just a bad, unprofitable idea. So if they want to max out on the money, which sadly is the ultimate motivation especially in 2019, featuring Luke in the flesh with a lightsaber, at least one last time is a surefire way to accomplish big time box office profit. I say it’s more likely than not that master Luke indeed returns in a big way for The Rise of Skywalker!