There has been a lot of excitement surrounding the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi film. A lot of excitement, but not that much information. It seems the Lucasfilm continues to withhold as much details as possible. With the exception of the leaking small clips and photos, hype and speculation is do the rest of the film’s marketing.
Though we have seen little actual footage of The Last Jedi, we can piece together the stories in our minds based on what we have seen so far. The first hints came from the teaser trailer in April, which gave us glimpses of some high–class action scenes, returning characters, and new environments.
That was the first time we caught a glimpse of Canto Bight, the new casino planet that has been causing quite a stir with fans. The planet seemed to contain a high–class society taking part in a number of galactic games of debauchery and wagering. Speculation arose around the new planet and its purpose before the dust settled again.
New information has recently been released, however, which tells us much more about the casino planet Canto Bight and its purpose in The Last Jedi. It has been revealed that Canto Bight will be a place where the very rich and elite can escape from the worries of the galactic struggle and carve out their own life, very much like professional poker players in our world who carve out their own future with huge winnings.
The Lucasfilm Story Group head Pablo Hidalgo said in an interview, “There’s a class of wealthy that have helped build all sorts of loopholes in society that will always ensure they’ll survive or even thrive, no matter what else is happening out there.”
This adds an interesting new dimension to the Star Wars saga, and not one that we have seen much of before. Perhaps this is the new writer/director Rian Johnson making his mark on the story. Never before has Star Wars explored the idea that there is a class of citizens that don’t know or care about The Resistance and who have no intention of joining the Light or Dark side anytime soon.
Canto Bight is an entire planet that is not affected, making it important in that it flies in the face of the usual perspectives that Star Wars offers — the two sides of the Force and their perpetual battle. The seedy world of Canto Bight will show us a whole load of people who are simply not getting involved.
Rian Johnson summed it up well when he said, “Canto Bight is a playground, basically, for rich assholes.”
A lot of the other information that has been released about Star Wars: The Last Jedi comes from photo shoots for Vanity Fair, depicting new worlds and possible character motivations. The most recent release even showed one backstage image of Leibovitz setting up for a Canto Bight shoot with the patrons.
The Last Jedi is set for release on December 18th, and we are expecting a much bigger output of marketing and teaser trailers leading up. Until then, we will have to make do with murky images and snippets of information. We will keep you updated.
