Evidence Luke Skywalker Crashed His X-Wing in 'The Last Jedi'
It looks like Luke Skywalker’s arrival on the planet Ahch-To was just as bumpy as the first time he rolled up on the planet Dagobah. A new image has emerged which strongly indicates Luke crashed his old X-Wing sometime prior to both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
On July 23, Making Star Wars linked to a tweet from the fan account, Daisy Ridley News, which showed what appeared to be a cover of an official Last Jedi book all about Rey. The speculation here is that this is an alternate cover to a children’s book called Rey’s Journey. And the art is striking. In it, Rey stands heroically on a cliff on Ahch-To while Luke’s head looms large in the background. And below them, in the watery depths of the ocean Rey and Chewie flew over in The Force Awakens is … a broken, old-school X-Wing! Making Star Wars posted the whole image here.
It’s notable that this X-Wing definitely looks more like the kind from the classic trilogy, and not the slicker kind flown by Poe Dameron and his buddies in The Force Awakens. The conclusion? This is Luke’s X-Wing, and he either crashed it when he arrived on Ahch-To, was shot down, or intentionally hid the ship in the waves to cover his tracks. And if he crashed, it would be in standard Luke fashion — he crashed his X-Wing onto the surface of the planet Dagobah right before he met Yoda for the first time in The Empire Strikes Back.
In the beloved expanded universe novels, Luke flew his trusty X-Wing for years and years after he became a full Jedi. And at one point, in the novel The New Rebellion, Luke had to fly an X-Wing that didn’t require a astromech droid for hyperspace calculations, which brings up an interesting point: If Luke was flying his old X-Wing and crash-landed it on Ahch-To, was he flying it without an R2 or BB unit in that little socket in the back? Obviously, R2-D2 was hanging out at the Resistance base for years after Luke’s departure, but how did Luke navigate deep space without the droid?
The easy answer is, of course he used the Force and flew through hyperspace without the aid of a navicomputer or an astromech droid. But, as Han Solo pointed out in A New Hope, this would require precise calculations. Still, if Luke did fly through hyperspace without an astromech droid doing the hyperspace calculations for him, it would suddenly add a foreshadowing element to his “what’s that flashing!” scene aboard the Millennium Falcon. As it turns out, traveling through hyperspace is like dusting drops, if you’re Luke anyway.
Still, at this point, because that image hasn’t been confirmed as actually being connected to a Star Wars book, it’s unclear how Luke got into exile in the first place. But because Jedi can’t teleport (that we know of), it stands to reason Luke got to Ahch-To on a spaceship of some kind. Unless, of course, he walked.
The Last Jedi will hit theaters on December 15.
