Ask any Star Wars fan worth their salt to identify the true hero of Lucasfilm’s original trilogy and they’ll likely gravitate toward Luke Skywalker, the Tatooine farm-boy-turned-Jedi-Master who helped topple the Galactic Empire and their totalitarian regime.
The character’s certainly seen better days, though. Last we checked in on him, he had helped to restore peace and prosperity to that galaxy far, far away. But after his capricious nephew, Ben Solo, ruined any hopes of a Jedi Academy, Luke retreated to the safety of Ahch-To, and has spent the majority of the time between Jedi and The Force Awakens in a state of exile – until Daisy Ridley’s Rey shows up out of the blue with lightsaber in hand, that is. And that’s where Star Wars: The Last Jedi begins.
Where it’ll go from there remains to be seen, but some new details on Luke’s Force powers have come to light today and we’ve gotta admit, they sound pretty awesome. From what we understand, one of his abilities in the film will be that of Force Repulse, which is a powerful move that’s similar to Force Maelstrom. For those unfamiliar, it’s used by both the Light and Dark Side and finds the user gathering “energy within themselves and then releasing it in a sudden outward burst.”
If you recall, we last saw this in the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, where Galen Marek was able to use it. However, many other notable characters have the ability as well, such as Darth Vader and Obi-Wan. Now, we can confirm that Luke will be able to exert a little Force Repulse, too, and apparently, we’ll get to see him show it off it in a third act battle against Kylo and the Knights of Ren. Excited, yet?
Said to balance the “familiar with the unfamiliar” and lay down a new series of rules for this most precious of cinematic universes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been penciled in for release on December 15th. It’ll be followed in relatively quick succession by Ron Howard’s Han Solo spinoff, before J.J. Abrams brings the curtain down on Disney’s rebooted trilogy with the release of Episode IX on December 20th, 2019.