Whilst we count down the months for the release of Episode VIII, Disney are now working endlessly on one of the most highly anticipated films of 2017: the next installment of the 'Star Wars' saga. We have recently found out the name for the film and it's safe to say it has got fans more than excited. 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' is the new name, and 15th December 2017 is the release date. Great timing for the release as it will give us a few weeks to send our list off to Santa Clause full of merchandise for a film that will surely be looking to surpass the global box office figure of just over 1 billion dollars which 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' achieved.
As always, like with every new release of the galactic adventures created by George Lucas, each small development of the films seems to create a sudden rush of excitement and expectation surrounding the next edition to the saga. When director Rian Johnson uploaded a picture on Instagram, fans were quick to jump onto social media to show their excitement and share their views and theories on the next installment. The photo shows one of the production team in a studio, accompanied by the trusty R2-D2, and a screen showing the new name for the film.
Johnson captioned the photo "felt so good to drop this into the cut this morning", a comment that all but confirms the new title which we will be able to see on the big screen soon along with the infamous opening crawl of text, something which peculiarly didn't appear at the start of 'Rogue One'.
The last Jedi and all its theories
Yes we may have already known that the film was going to be called 'The Last Jedi' before the photo was uploaded by Johnson, however this didn't stop our excitement getting the better of us from such a simple, yet very effective, image published onto the social media platform. Of course, it's now confirmed that Luke is the 'the last Jedi' which makes reference to the title, however there was reference to this in the previous film 'The Force Awakens'. During the opening crawl for Episode VII, the very first paragraph states "Luke Skywalker 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."
What could this lead to? Well, considering in the Star Wars universe the word Jedi can be used in both the singular and plural version, which by the looks of it, truly means Luke is the last one of the clan. There are many theories flying about but all we know for the time being with the evidence we have been given from the ending of Episode VII, and the new name for Episode VIII, is that the story will center around Luke (Mark Hamill) and that Rey (Daisy Ridley) will also play an important part.
