The Last Jedi Director Explains Film's Final Scene

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. 

Though it may have seemed like Star Wars: The Last Jedi was going to end on the heartwarming Resistance reunion and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) telling Rey (Daisy Ridley) that the crew had everything they needed to rise once more, the film threw audiences for a loop when it closed on a servant boy Force-pulling a broom toward himself, looking down at a Rebel ring Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) gifted him, and staring off into a sky full of stars. Naturally, this raised a ton of questions: Just who is that broom-brushing boy? Could he represent a new hope for the Resistance? And will he ever come in contact with the other heroes in the galaxy far, far away?

Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson opened up about the ending of the film and revealed its deeper meaning.

"It's mostly about Luke [Mark Hamill]," Johnson said, referencing the ending shot of the young boy, whose name is actually Temiri Blagg. "To me, it shows that the act Luke Skywalker did, of deciding to take on this mantle of 'the legend,' after he had decided the galaxy was better off with, had farther reaching consequences than saving 20 people in a cave."

Just before we see Temiri Blagg holding his broom like a lightsaber in the seconds before the credits roll, we watch as he uses homemade action figures to excitedly reenact Luke's sacrifice after he battled Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to save the Resistance. Johnson firmly stated that this was the perfect way to end The Last Jedi. "I couldn't think of a more evocative image of hope than a kid who is playing with his Luke Skywalker action figure and being inspired by that to grow up and have an adventure and fight the good fight," he said. 

The director hinted that Luke's actions in The Last Jedi were the true spark that will light the fire that burns down the First Order, as Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) says in the film. "Now the Legend of Luke Skywalker is spreading," noted Johnson. "Hope is reignited in the galaxy."

Sounds like the perfect way to usher in Episode IX.