Another day, another piece of Star Wars merchandise that gives us a clue about what to expect in The Last Jedi.
One of the cards from the upcoming Topps Trading Cards set for the movie reveals just how Luke Skywalker arrived on the backwater planet of Ahch-To, which is where we saw him in the final moments of The Force Awakens. As can be seen in the image below, the card features a sombre-looking Luke along with Rey, who’s standing on the clifftops of the island that houses an ancient Jedi temple. Most notably, Luke’s trusty old X-Wing has sunk to the bottom of the river.
Fans will notice that this is another part of The Last Jedi that mirrors The Empire Strikes Back, as the much younger Luke previously crashed his X-Wing into Yoda’s swamp on Dagobah. No doubt this will lead to a scene where Luke teaches Rey to lift the spaceship, just like in the beloved 1980 movie.
The most important thing to infer from this, though, is that it likely disproves a very popular fan theory. As seen in a flashback in Force Awakens, Rey was left on Jakku by her unknown guardians, who are glimpsed flying away on a ship. Fans have always assumed that this was Luke dropping off Rey – one of his Jedi students – to protect her from Kylo Ren’s wrath. However, this is surely not the case, as it’s definitely not an X-Wing that we see in the flashback. Not only that, but the assumption was that Luke travelled straight to Ahch-To after leaving Rey, and it would be unlikely that he stopped to switch vehicles along the way.
So, this once again leaves Rey’s origins wide open. Thankfully, we won’t have long to wait until these questions and more are cleared up, as writer/director Rian Johnson has confirmed that the identity of Rey’s parents will be revealed in The Last Jedi when it arrives on December 15th.