EPISODE IX Speculation (includes SPOILERS from THE LAST JEDI)

[Sacred Knight]

Luke alive with children carrying on as Jedi will the only outcome that will result in me actually being happy with Episode IX. And a lot of people feel that way. Lucasfilm has completely underestimated how people feel about Luke and the Skywalker family.

I'm sure a lot of people do feel that way. I'm also sure a lot of others don't. By understanding the former but not the latter, you're overselling one sides' feelings. I know fans who feel that TLJ improved on the character of Luke Skywalker by giving him pathos. And I stress that all of these friends are staunch OT fans. That's my particular age group so those are most of the fans I know. That's their bar, not the prequels nor any of the animated works. So not every long-time fan absolutely needed him to be the super buffed all-successful all-powerful Jedi he was portrayed as in the original EU novels. Not everyone needed him to have the ultimate happy ending. There's nothing wrong with NOT agreeing with either of those things. But fans of this nature absolutely exist. If anything you're underestimating that, not the other way around.

I can acknowledge all of this as being someone of the mind that I still wish Rey was his daughter, and that I too am not completely comfortable with the idea of Kylo Ren being the last Skywalker by the time we leave this era. That would be somewhat disappointing to me. But I'm not going to pretend its the only opinion out there.

[Carabas]

Luke alive with children carrying on as Jedi will the only outcome that will result in me actually being happy with Episode IX. And a lot of people feel that way. Lucasfilm has completely underestimated how people feel about Luke and the Skywalker family.

Don't you feel that sort happy ending is rather at odds with Campbell's Heroes's Journey path Lucas followed slavishly and the new trilogy continues to follow for Luke?

[thwhtGuardian]

Other than Rey's going to learn from Luke superficially paralleling Luke's going to learn from Yoda, I didn't find that much similarity between THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and THE LAST JEDI.

I also find the parallels between A NEW HOPE and THE FORCE AWAKENS a bit exaggerated as well.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

It began with the Rebel base being discovered by the Imperials and the fleet desperately fleeing a blockade; meanwhile the young jedi travels to a mysterious planet to seek training from an old jedi master. A band of Rebels find out they can't jump to hyper space so they desperately flee from the Imperial fleet, taking heavy fire all the way, and in a last ditch effort to escape once and for all from their dogged pursuit they travel to a luxury planet for assistance from a shady contact only to find out he's sold them out. Things aren't going great for the young jedi either as the old jedi master first refuses to train the young jedi and then once the training begins it must end abruptly as the young jedi receives a premonition of impending doom for the rebels and so leaves to save them but in order to do so must do battle with a dark sith lord who divulges a great secret about the young jedi's past.

That's a synopsis that easily fits both films. Are their twists that make different? Sure, but the plot outline for the Last Jedi is so similar that it can't be coincidence. Disney decided that Star Wars fans want nostalgia and so they've engineered these films to play on that and I don't see the next film breaking from that mold.

If the next film isn't pretty close to as follows I'll eat my hat:
Broken apart after the events of the Last Jedi the rag tag band of rebels seeks assistance from the shadier elements of the galaxy in order to fight the First Order. Negotiations don't go as planned for Finn and Poe so Rey has to swoop in and save them from the gangster's lair(parallels to Jabba's palace). As the Rebels regroup Rey goes back to the first Jedi Temple only to discover her master is dead and the books are gone; Luke as a force ghost appears and tells her that she didn't need him or his books to complete her training and that she must follow her feelings and forge her own destiny so she returns to the Rebels as they are planning a last ditch assault on the new First Order capital planet in an attempt to cut the serpent's head off and end the first order once and for all. In the middle of the mission Rey breaks formation in order to confront Ben, the two have an epic battle and Rey shows him it's not about light or dark but balance and together they help end the tyranny of the first order and usher in a new age of peace and prosperity in the galaxy.

[ChrisIII]

I think in a few ways the resistance is in worse shape than the Rebellion at that point; although the Rebels did lose their base, and Luke's particular band suffered personal losses with Han and Luke's hand and innocence, they still had a decent fleet which is able to at least do a decent job at countering the Imperial fleet once Lando takes the Destroyers head-on (The Imperial fleet was really only meant to keep them from getting away from the Death Star's laser). Now the Falcon pretty much is the fleet.

Does Cloud City really seem like a luxury planet? Sure it kind of looks nice compared to Tatooine, but it's pretty much just a fancy mine with some dinghy chambers such as the Carbon freeze area. (The EU states it has casinos and stuff like that, but we never see it in the film).

The books are in the Falcon. Rey (or perhaps Chewie or Yoda's ghost?) took them from the tree before it was destroyed.

[David Walton]

The resistance is definitely in worse shape at the end of TLJ than the rebellion was in ESB.

Their entire ranks fit in the Millenium Falcon now.

Which is why I think they'll make use of a more significant time jump (at least five, maybe ten years?) to restore the Resistance to a fighting chance. Or maybe not--it's a fantasy, so it's not like they need a logical explanation. It could be they have more allies than we're led to believe who simply weren't able to make it to Crait for other reasons.

[MASTER-OF-SUPRISE]

I think a time jump is definitely needed. So both side can actually have a war. The Resistance especially. Phasma as much as I would've loved for her to be an awesome new villain got snubbed so bad in both movies that I don't think they can realistically portray her as a threat. Which is very sad since she looked like she may have had a chance to be a great villain when they first talked about TLJ. Man was she wasted.

[Somecrazyaussie]

There will be a time jump. It is the only way to handle Carrie's passing in story. There will also be a backpedal on Rey's parentage. Most likely we will find out that Kylo lied about them being nobodies.

There is still an out for Luke. We only saw him fade away from behind. His cloak being the only thing we see left. However, they could always say that was another force image. I mean, they did show his X-Wing. So who's to say he didn't get away? His battle with Kylo being part of some grand plan to ignite hope in the galaxy. Not saying they should, just that it is there.

I imagine that Abrams will give fans what they want to see. Which is something Johnson wasn't particularly keen on doing.

[ChrisIII]

Early ROTJ drafts actually had Obi-Wan come back from being dead...and certainly the Disney films have in a few ways used discarded material from the earlier films (Vader's castle being the most obvious I think).

[Serpico Jones]

Luke will be alive and well in the next movie. Disney isn’t in the business of pissing off their fans so I expect most of The Last Jedi to get retconned.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't see it as possible. I'm not seeing the supposed out; his physical body disappeared like Obi-Wan and Yoda did before him and became one with the Force. He's dead. It'd be easier to retcon Han's death over Luke's, and that's saying something. He'll be in the film, but as a Force ghost. Indeed I would anticipate his role in IX to be the most substantial of any Force ghost to date, but he'll still be categorically dead. If there was ambiguity to the scene fine, but there wasn't, so at this point you move forward. You don't jump through hoops over such a clearly established event just because some fans are pissed off. Some fans are always pissed off, regardless whether its Star Wars or something else.

[Starter Set]

Luke will be alive and well in the next movie. Disney isn’t in the business of pissing off their fans so I expect most of The Last Jedi to get retconned.

That would be all good and fine of course but with people like Kathleen "agenda" Kennedy and Jar Jar Abrams around i really doubt so.

[Sacred Knight]

It actually wouldn't be fine. It would be the most fanboyish thing anyone could do, in point of fact.

[Carabas]

Luke will be alive and well in the next movie. Disney isn’t in the business of pissing off their fans so I expect most of The Last Jedi to get retconned.

And the proof of this is how Han Solo was alive and well in The Last Jedi.

[chachi]

The books are in the Falcon. Rey (or perhaps Chewie or Yoda's ghost?) took them from the tree before it was destroyed.

There's a blink and you'll miss it scene showing Rey shutting the drawer the books are in as her and Chewie are leaving the Island.

Their entire ranks fit in the Millenium Falcon now.

In one of the extras on the Blu-Ray, Rian Johnson says the resistance is down to "2 dozen or so" people.

[Scott Taylor]

I imagine that Abrams will give fans what they want to see.

A good movie that does spend half its time on a bunch of idiots engaging in a slow-speed "chase" through space? I hope so.