‘Star Wars’: Will The Rebellion Come to Aid The Resistance in ‘Episode IX’?

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Resistance faces its biggest challenge yet. With the First Order having attacked its base on D’Qar, the Resistance finds itself needing to recoup and make it to a new base to continue their fight. But after the events of The Last Jedi, the Resistance might need more help in Episode IX prompting the question: will the Rebellion come to their aid?

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

There’s no way to put this other than bluntly: the Resistance is in bad shape in The Last Jedi. With their numbers dwindling by the end of the film, the entirety of the Resistance fits on board the Millenium Falcon after having not fared well in repeated attacks from the First Order. Before the group is able to make their escape with Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) on the Falcon, the last few members of the Resistence are holed up in an old base on Crait with seemingly no way out. This prompts Leia (Carrie Fisher) to send out her personal distress code into the galaxy for any of their allies who still remain, but no response or aid comes. People, Leia says, have lost hope.

But with hope restored thanks to Luke’s (Mark Hamill) Force projection besting Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and allowing the last of the Resistance to escape, one of the big questions fans have been asking is how the Resistance continues from here, and will the Rebellion come to their aid?

Considering that the Rebellion as we know it became the New Republic following the Rebellion’s decisive victory at the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi and that the New Republic was decimated when the First Order fired Starkiller Base’s superweapon on Hosnian Prime — the capital planet of the New Republic — during The Force Awakens, it doesn’t seem likely that we could see the Rebellion at all. All that is really left of the old Rebellion, as far as we know, is the current Resistance. It would be somewhat difficult for the Rebellion to help itself if all that is left is hope and a handful of rebels.

However, that doesn’t rule out the idea of a new Rebellion. With hope seemingly restored both by Luke’s sacrifice and the victory of the Resistance over the First Order with Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) destroying Snoke’s ship, not to mention the rise of Rey — Leia even pats Rey’s leg and tells her that the Resistance has all they need, presumably with her — a freshly inspired galaxy may raise a new Rebellion to fight the First Order. It’s something that the last moments of The Last Jedi seem to hint at with the stable boy on Canto Bight looking to the sky optimistically.

Of course, one could always argue that the Resistance is the Rebellion, just a little rougher around the edges, and will simply help themselves. After all, they do have the same symbol, a symbol that is now inspiring a new generation to rise up. There’s also that tantalizing moment when Finn (John Boyega) tells Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) that he’s not just scum, but Rebel scum so maybe the Rebellion isn’t gone after all.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.