The Biggest Unanswered Questions In The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi has arrived at last, leaving audiences thrilled, amazed, and emotionally spent. Not to mention totally wondering exactly what the heck is going to happen next. Unfortunately, that "next" isn't going to arrive until Episode IX hits theaters in 2019, but at least that gives fans plenty of time to speculate about just what we're likely to see when the story finally concludes. With that in mind, here's a spoiler-filled look at some of the biggest unanswered questions in The Last Jedi. 

Just as it seemed all hope was lost for the Resistance at the end of The Last Jedi, the actual last Jedi showed up with a new hope in the form of a cool Force projection from across the galaxy. Using this cool remote control avatar of himself, Luke bought time for the remaining survivors of the Rebellion to escape and scatter to the winds, to plant the seeds of a new, future Rebellion. And then, for no apparent reason, he died.

But why? It's possible, of course, that the strain of sending his astral form across the galaxy proved too much for Luke. It's also possible that being repeatedly shot with laser cannons and stabbed by Kylo Ren's lightsaber actually did damage to Luke's physical form—after all, Kylo was able to make physical contact with Rey in their shared Force vision. It's also possible that Luke simply decided to become a Force ghost after fulfilling his destiny. Perhaps he finally found his own personal balance and simply decided to go out on a high note. 

All we know for sure is, one second Luke was fine, and a second later, he raptured on out of there and left behind a sweaty old Jedi snuggie for the temple cleanup crew to deal with. But why is anyone's guess. 

When Luke explains to Rey what happened between him and Kylo Ren, he states that Ben Solo turned to the dark side, slew several of Luke's other students, and then absconded with the rest. That raises a couple questions, the main one being why. According to Sith lore, there's supposed to be a master and an apprentice. What use, then, would Snoke have for a bunch of other, less powerful Force users if Kylo Ren was slated to be his new apprentice?

Of course, we've all been told Snoke wasn't actually a member of the Sith and didn't care about those rules. So what happened to Luke's other students? Is it possible they became Snoke's elite guards? The red-clad warriors who protect Snoke may not have done a great job of it, but they were almost powerful enough to take on both Kylo Ren and Rey at the same time, and they were all decked out with sweet, individualized weapons. 

Of course, if those were Luke's other students, why wasn't anybody looking for them and trying to save them instead of worrying only about Kylo Ren all the time? And if they weren't Luke's other students, does that mean some of them might still be alive somewhere? Hmm...

There was a ton of speculation over the last couple years about Supreme Leader Snoke's backstory and what his powers were. Thanks to The Last Jedi we now know that it apparently doesn't matter, because he got chopped in half like a total chump and is dead as a doornail.

Or is he?

One of the leading theories about Snoke's true identity was the idea that he was actually Darth Plagueis, an ancient Sith Lord who was so incredibly powerful, he actually mastered death itself. Which leaves fans in an interesting quandary. If that theory is right—and Star Wars insiders have suggested that it isn't—then Snoke's true identity matters very much, because he could very well return from the dead in the next movie. But if the theory is wrong, then Snoke's true identity may not matter at all—he could be literally any other Joe Schmoe in the entire universe, and who cares. Or maybe he's yet another character with the ability to manifest as a Force ghost, only this time on the dark side.

So is Snoke really dead? Or is he bound to return from the grave in Episode IX? Let the next two years of speculation begin. 

When Carrie Fisher passed away in 2016, fans wondered exactly how it would affect the Star Wars universe. While Fisher had already finished filming her scenes as General Leia for The Last Jedi, Disney reportedly had to completely rework the story for Episode IX to deal with the loss of one of the franchise's most beloved characters. 

But how exactly are they going to handle it in the story? At the end of The Last Jedi, Leia is still leading the ragtag group of survivors from the Resistance, and is confident she has all the tools she needs to reform the movement and drive out the First Order. But since Disney is reportedly not going to use any footage of Fisher in Episode IX, or use CGI to recreate her as they did in Rogue One, it leaves a major question mark about how they'll explain her absence. 

When Rey shows up and asks for Luke's help, he very rudely tells her to get lost, informing her that he came to the island to die in peace. Which is a nice line and everything, but it doesn't make a lick of sense. Two things: firstly, if he wanted to die, why is he still alive? And more importantly: if he really wanted to be alone so darn badly, why exactly did he leave behind a detailed map showing exactly how to find him? The whole thing seems like the Jedi equivalent of vaguebooking: he really went away because he just wanted someone to come find him and ask what's wrong. 

And here you thought Kylo Ren was the emo one. 

Jedi trainees sure do love going into evil caves to confront the dark side. It's been a thing for nearly four decades now. But while Luke's experience in The Empire Strikes back was a chilling bit of character development that foreshadowed the revelation that Darth Vader was his father, Rey's trip into the blowhole of ultimate doom simply raised more questions than it answered. The main one: what the heck is in there?

When Rey first senses the cave, Luke is horrified at how willingly she approaches the darkness that dwells within. They agree that there must be something Rey needs inside the cave, something that calls to her. And yet, when she actually goes inside to find out what the deal is, she ends up just snapping her fingers like a space beatnik while fiddling around with the Star Wars version of the Mirror of Erised. Only instead of showing her her family, it shows her ... well, just her own reflection.

And since that's something she could have gotten anywhere, the question is, what's in the cave that Rey was so drawn to? because whatever it is, she didn't seem to actually find it. 

Fans have been salivating at the idea of Leia becoming a Jedi knight since it was first revealed in Return of the Jedi that she's Luke's sister and can also use the Force. But other than occasionally gazing into the middle distance and mumbling someone's name, she never seemed to use any of her powers—until The Last Jedi, when she suddenly went full Jedi in a crazy sequence when she used her abilities to survive the vacuum of space and even fly through it.

Which begs the question: how the heck did she do that? When did she undergo training? What else can she do? The full extent of Leia's powers have never been explored or really even hinted at, but flying around in space like you're Iron Man or something suggests that Leia has a whole bag of tricks we never knew about—and, sadly, are never likely to see more of. 

In one of the most wrenching scenes in the film, Chewbacca tries to eat a roast porg, only to be accosted by the poor beast's distraught family. They try to guilt him into not eating the porg, although at that point, the damage was kind of done. We don't know whether Chewie ended up eating the porg, but it brought up possibly the most important question of the whole film: what does porg taste like? Sure, the name suggests pork, but it looked a lot more like chicken to us.

It's true that Last Jedi leaves a lot of questions open to debate. Like, was Benicio del Toro's character DJ actually the hacker Maz Kanata sent Rose and Finn to find? Are there going to be any repercussions for Poe's mutiny, not to mention the fact that his dumb plan almost wiped out a big part of the Resistance fleet? Why did they keep saying the giant door to the base at the end was the only way in or out when they had a tunnel that led to the trenches in front of the fortress?

But for our money, the one question we really want answered is whether porg tastes like chicken or pork. Porg: the other white meat? It does kind of have a ring to it.