Just like Yoda trained Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, The Last Jedi looks to revolve around the mentor/student relationship between Luke – now in the role of teacher – and Rey. To illustrate this, the latest issue of Empire features a gorgeous alternate subscription cover which is an almost literal representation of the characters passing the torch.
The composition of the image is presumably inspired by the final shot of The Force Awakens, which was Mark Hamill’s first appearance as Luke since 1983’s Return of the Jedi and saw Rey tracking him down to the backwater planet of Ahch-To to offer him his old lightsaber back.
A nice touch here is the rainbow running through the sky. We might be reading into it too much, but could it suggest that the future is beginning to look brighter? After all, with Luke back on board, the First Order’s time could be up. File that under speculation for now, but in the meantime, you can feast your eyes on the gorgeous new Empire cover below.
The most interesting element of the cover for fans will be the highly-detailed look it gives us at Luke’s robotic hand. It’s a revised model from the more humanoid one he wore in Return, after Darth Vader (his own father!) chopped it off in Empire. It’s a very cool prosthetic, but it also looks like something sported by one of the villains in the Star Wars franchise rather than one of the heroes. Is this a hint that Luke will turn to the Dark Side in The Last Jedi after all? Perhaps.
At this point, with the plot under more security than the plans to the Death Star in Rogue One, that’s as likely a development as any. In fact, Hamill himself even said recently that Luke’s experiences from the end of the original trilogy to the point of The Force Awakens are totally unknown.
Still, this is all speculation and will remain as such until Star Wars: The Last Jedi finally arrives in theatres on December 15th.