Last Friday at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, The Star Wars: The Last Jedi teaser trailer premiered to the masses all around the world watching.  Since the debut, millions of Star Wars fans have been dissecting every aspect of the trailer trying to get every detail out of it to learn more about the highly anticipated film.  While some of the trailer seems to be pretty straightforward most of it seems to be un-forthcoming.  The bombshell from the entire trailer came at the end when we hear Luke Skywalker’s voice say “I know one thing…it’s time for the Jedi to end.”  This got everyone wondering what he could mean since he is supposed to be the one who would bring balance to the Force.  There have been multiple theories online about what Luke could possibly mean from that statement.  

All of us at LRM have our different ideas what Luke meant by “The Jedi should end” and instead of going with one theory we decided to post all of our theories below.

Joseph Medina

Luke is a smart guy. He knows that his father, Darth Vader, already went to the Dark Side. The result of this downfall brought the rise of the Emperor and the Empire. By the time The Force Awakens opens, we’re seeing history repeating itself. Kylo Ren seems to have betrayed Luke, assisted in killing whatever Jedi academy he had going on, and has since turned to The First Order. Luke sees history repeating itself again and again, and at the center of each conflict seems to be a Jedi gone bad. With that in mind, he may have resigned to the idea that the galaxy would be better off without Jedi. If there are no Jedi, there can be no Dark Side. 

That being said, from what we can tell, he still trains Rey. I think that line in the trailer is likely from the first third of the film, before Rey convinces him to train her. We’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out, but this story may be one that revolves around Luke coming back to the idea that all Jedi aren’t bad. That can be his personal journey in this eighth chapter. As for where that leaves Rey and Kylo Ren…I can’t even begin to guess.

Drew Carlton

I still think that Snoke may be an altered “ghost” form of Anakin Skywalker, but what is more important is that our champion of light, Luke Skywalker, may be drinking from the Sith Lord punch bowl.

You can read more from Drew’s article here.

Allison Law

My thought was there has to be a different way of looking at the Force. The Jedi are like communism – great in theory, corrupt and terrible in practice. The Jedi were based off rigid control of themselves, with no room to debate other practices or learn the other side of things; leading to their downfall. Additionally, although Luke is the last Jedi, he was not trained conventionally to become one. He could try the Padawan-Master approach in training Ray, but she’s too old for that to work. The Jedi have also become equivalent to “Force user” the same way searching things online is equivalent to “Google”. He might mean there needs to be other ways of learning the Force than the Jedi path.

Cam Clark

The way I see it there are 2 possible outcomes that come to mind with this line

1: As others have said, this is a fundamental change to the way Luke see’s the Force, the Jedi and the Sith, some of this stuff has been hinted at but never truly developed in initially the Prequel trilogy and then expanded upon in the Clone Wars cartoon series. I hope it’s this option, it seemed clear from the prequels that the Jedi were defeated by being too dogmatic and unwilling to change, I’ve also always felt that the key ti Immortality i.e. Force Ghosts was due to having attachments to the still living Force. I’d like to see them explore this more for sure.

2: This could simply be an aspect of Luke’s unwillingness to get involved in the Galaxies affairs, we already know not to expect him to be undamaged and all heroic, what if this is him simply refusing to train Rey at first, ‘No the Jedi have to end’ etc? But Rey convinces Luke the Jedi are needed and he agrees to train her. Now I kinda like that idea as well, because it would be about Luke, not the Force in general. But not as much as the first one.

Mark Cook

I think Luke is jaded right now.  When Yoda went into exile he still had hope, but Luke has now seen his father (Darth Vader), and his apprentice( Kylo Ren), go to the Dark Side with disasterous results.  I think he sees how corruptible people can be and is afraid to have any more Jedi’s in the universe as they could easily turn to the Sith side.  He may view the ultimate balance of the force to actually be no Sith or Jedi aroubd to manipulate it.  Rey will prove him wrong though.

Kat Calamia aka Comic Uno

I have a feeling in Star Wars: The Last Jedi we will learn how Kylo Ren turned to the dark side, and that Luke saying “It’s time for the Jedi to end” has to do with his relationship with Kylo. 

Michael Connally

I believe we will here Luke say this line while Rey is going through the trials to become a Jedi. Just like when Luke confronted Vader in the caves while training with Yoda, Rey will see the temptation of the Dark Side of the Force while training to be a Jedi.  It will be a vision that will tempt Rey to have doubts in the Force.  One of the common themes we have seen is Star Wars is the constant seduction of the Dark Side by instilling fear into its enemies.   

David Kozlowski

Going out on a limb here, but I suspect Luke’s “Jedi must end” remark implies that no one can truly control or master the Force because it’s too powerful and ultimately too corrupting. Consequently, the only way to end the Sith is to concurrently end the Jedi. We know from The Force Awakens that Luke failed in his attempt to train new Jedi, as Obi-Wan failed before him, and as countless others must have also failed in the past. I don’t think Luke is turning to the Dark Side nor is he necessarily turning away from the Light Side; instead, I think he’s trying to remove both the Jedi and the Sith from the board before someone more powerful than Vader or Kylo emerges — a threat potentially too powerful for anyone to defeat. If true, Luke’s actions are certainly pragmatic, but also kind of pessimistic. I suspect that Luke has simply lost his way and Rey is going to bring him back into the game, much as Leia did with Obi-Wan. I fear that Luke is going to sacrifice himself in IX, which is probably necessary to advance the narrative.

Tim Jousma

I think Luke has been disillusioned as to what the Force and the Jedi can do. He feels their limitations set the stage for people to want to break free and embrace the Dark Side of the Force. He also realizes that all the teachings of the Sith may not necessarily be bad. By ending the Jedi as we know it, he feels he is probably helping the Force.

What do you think Luke meant by “The Jedi Should End”? Let us know in the comments down below!

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