5 things I expect to see in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) - Part II: The force ghosts will return

With the recent release of the latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer (watch it here, if you haven't already) lots of speculation has started about the story and eventual outcome of things, since the trailer itself really doesn't reveal an awful lot about its story and looks to be filled with some deliberate confusing and altered scenes that probably aren't going to play out the way as depicted in the trailer.

So all we can do for now is speculate, which is one of the more fun things, leading up to one of the most anticipated movies of 2017. A perfect opportunity to share my 2 cents about the upcoming Rian Johnson movie as well, but please take it with a grain of salt, since my guesses and interpretations of the movie and trailer are of course just as good (or bad and crazy) as yours.

The force ghosts will return

Out of all the things I am going to write and speculate about in regards to "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" this is probably going to be the least daring thing to say. After all, both Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) and Frank Oz (Yoda) have been spotted at the Pinewood studio's, where tons of Star Wars scenes got shot at and where most of the audio gets recorded. It is therefore very likely that the movie will at the very least feature the voices of both Oz and Christensen in it, reprising the roles they both last played 12 years ago.

The return of Frank Oz would be awesome, but the return of Hayden Christensen would be the most interesting one. Not just because Christensen have been out of the spotlights for quite some time now, but it also would connect the prequel trilogy to the new trilogy, which is something that hasn't really been done yet. Most people tend to ignore the prequel trilogy, will its characters and story of course are important to the saga as a whole. I therefore feel that it is also quite important for the newer movies to start to acknowledge this, without constantly having to reference it.

It also definitely would be interesting to do what the movie will do with the Anakin character. An early idea for "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" featured Anakin's force ghost as an half good, half evil force ghost, who probably would have appeared in the movie as a guide to Kylo Ren, sort of what Obi-Wan's ghost was to Luke in the original trilogy. A reason for them to reuse this idea in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is if they want to bring the character Darth Vader back in some form. This however is doubtful to me, since there already is so much going on in the new movies in regard to its villains. It would be fun and awesome to see Darth Vader reappear in some sort of flashback or force dream at one point, but I don't believe that Christensen's potential return would mark the definitive return of Darth Vader as well.

It seems far more likely to me that Anakin is going to appear in this movie as the good and completely redeemed Anakin, as a guide to Luke and potentially Rey and Kylo at some point. After all, after killing The Emperor and saving his son Luke from getting electrocuted aboard the second Death Star, Anakin brought balance to the force and redeemed himself, confirmed by him appearing as a force ghost in front of Luke, alongside Yoda and Obi-Wan, at the end of "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi". His and Yoda's involvement with the movie probably aren't going to be big, but they don't have to be to make a big and significant impact on the story of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi".

Throughout the original Obi-Wan's force ghost always had been Luke's most important guide in life. It is therefore also really interesting to see what this movie is going to do with the Obi-Wan character, if anything. But really, featuring both Yoda's and Anakin's voices or force ghosts in this movie would make very little sense without Obi-Wan appearing in it as well. Problem of course is that Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan throughout the entire original trilogy, died in 2000. It is possible that the are going to bring him back through CGI, just like they brought Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin back for "Rogue One", but this however seems unlikely to me, seeing how Guinness later in life began to despise his Star Wars involvement and new found fame with it. It is therefore unlikely to me that the descendants of Alec Guinness grant Disney permission to use his likeness, no matter how much they offer.

That raises the next question; could Ewan McGregor return as Obi-Wan? McGregor has always been
keen on the idea of reprising his Obi-Wan character in future movies, in with "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" he already very briefly returned, providing a line of dialog for the movie during Rey's force vision. It besides would be a perfect setup for a standalone Obi-Wan Kenobi movie, set between the events of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope". Seeing (or perhaps only hearing) Ewan McGregor return in this movie would be a bigger surprise than Hayden Christensen but one that would be an absolute possibility in my opinion and one that I would welcome.

It is very likely that the force ghost will only appear briefly, but it would open the door for them to appear in later movies, as well as other characters who have perished, such as Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu and Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn. it besides would be a wonderful moment for Star Wars fans to see the return of some much loved and classics characters. It would be interesting to see the force ghosts' involvement in the saga and their impact on the story and effect on its new characters. it also would be a perfect tie-in with the two earlier trilogies. It also would be interesting to see how the force ghost develop and help the story to move along. After all, it would make sense for the new characters such as Finn, Poe, Kylo and Rey to become more important than the classic ones, such as Luke and Leia. Does this mean that the force ghost will start to interact with the newer characters at some point? Most likely yes and it is probably going to be something that we will first get to see in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", as Rey begins her big and challenging journey in life.