Even Mark Hamill’s commented on the Star Wars franchise’s tendency to provide its Jedi masters with “curtain calls” as Force Ghosts. Ever since Alec Guinness’ Ben Kenobi reemerged following his body’s vanishment in A New Hope, we’ve seen the likes of Yoda and Anakin Skywalker take this glowing form. And while a lot of fans weren’t too happy to see Luke join those ranks in The Last Jedi, one wild theory suggests that his time as a ghost began long before the events of Rian Johnson’s controversial film.
In fact, Reddit user 27SwingAndADrive argues that Luke has actually been a ghost throughout the entirety of the latest trilogy. They claim that Skywalker had died and gone into the Force abyss when Kylo Ren attacked the Jedi Academy, providing a reason as to why the famed Jedi wasn’t able or willing to help stop some of the events in/before The Force Awakens – such as the rise of The First Order as well as the death of Han Solo.
You can check out the whole theory for yourself down below:
“He was killed when Kylo Ren attacked the Jedi Academy a decade ago. Luke didn’t know how to turn into a ghost like Yoda and Obi Wan did (never learned that trick), so he was lost in some magical force plain of existence and couldn’t really materialize before people. That’s why he couldn’t save Han, he couldn’t kill Snoke, etc. He could only project visions into people’s minds in one particular place in the galaxy that is strong with the force.
“So we’re seeing Rey on this island, having visions about Luke and Luke struggling to materialize himself as a force ghost. He’s not really there, we’re seeing everything from Rey’s point of view, only visions of Luke. This is why we don’t see Luke talking with Chewie, because Chewie can’t see him. R2 was the closest sentient being to Luke when he died a decade before, so some part of Luke was in R2 which is why R2 was broken in Force Awakens.
“Luke Skywalker is not some asshole that doesn’t care about his friends, he’s a confused ghost that’s disconnected from the universe of the living. Then once he’s able to figure out how to project his ghost to the world of the living, he immediately goes and saves everyone.”
Now, whether or not this theory treads any water is up to you, but one very observant critic tried to shut the whole thing down by asking, “who was the one milking those Thala-sirens at one point in the story?” That’s a good point, one that brought the whole thread to a halt for a while.
But even so, director Rian Johnson’s never stopped arguing for his version of the character, saying that this Luke’s the same Luke we’d known in the original trilogy. Way back in November, this is how he put it:
Hot take: Luke is in fact 100% consistent with his character (not the way he’s described in marketing blurbs, but his actual, based-on-his-words-and-actions character) from the OT. I’ll be at the bar if you need me.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) November 5, 2018
But like everything with the Star Wars universe, these ideas will be up for debate for years to come. And with that said, we’d like to know your thoughts. Does this theory make any sense to you? Do you think Luke was actually a Force Ghost the whole time? Be sure to drop us a comment down below.