What Rey’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi Look Says About the Character

When Hasbro‘s packaging for Force Friday II was revealed Thursday morning, it didn’t just give us a look at what the toys that hit stores this September will be adorned with. It also gave us our first look at the newest design for the character Rey, played by actress Daisy Ridley, and a sneak peek presumably at what she’ll look like in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The film currently sits at the top of ComicBook.com’s all-movies anticipation rankings with a 4.57 out of 5, beating out even Avengers: Infinity War, so chances are fans have taken a long hard look at this image today.

Looking closely, it seems she has a new top on, though she’s still rocking the separate sleeve on her arm to go with it. Most obviously, her hair is down, and longer now. Since The Last Jedi starts just after Star Wars: The Force Awakens ends, it stands to reason this look is one we’ll see a little later in the movie. Perhaps there’s a time jump earlier in the film that sees her having been on Ahch-To with Luke Skywalker and training for some time. Or maybe she just got super sick of putting her hair up three times.

The other significant part of the image is the look of determination and the way she’s holding her lightsaber. Despite holding the blade, which many fans call the Skywalker lightsaber due to it being built by Anakin, passed down to Luke (after about 19 years in the custody of Obi-Wan Kenobi), out to Luke at the end of The Force Awakens, it looks like it will still belong to Rey in The Last Jedi. Whether that’s because Luke still has his own green saber, out of necessity, or there’s a deeper mythological reason with the way the blade called out to her. She’s also holding it in a much more trained and disciplined pose, in contrast to how she wielded it on pure instinct at the end of the last film.

Ultimately, it’s also a toy box promo image, so some things, like the composition of the shot, her hair style, and determined look could all be just for this shoot. However, Lucasfilm tends to be so measured and calculated in everything they release, it’s a safe bet that some analysis of this image does gift us with some knowledge of what’s coming in the next film.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, from writer/director Rian Johnson, is in post-production now for a December 15, 2017 release. The film follows-up and continues the story of the next generation of the saga as Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren find their place in the galaxy and follow the legacy of Luke Skywalker, Leia, and Han Solo. Daisy Ridley returns to star as Rey, with other returning stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Mayhew, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Lupita Nyong’o Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa. Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern join the cast in as-yet-unrevealed roles.

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