There is a good chance that Darth Vader will be making his way into Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but not in any way that a lot of over-excited and over-caffeinated fans might think. For those of you that have watched the trailer already and are at this point starting to see Vader in your morning breakfast in various different ways take a chill pill and calm down. Keep in mind that Kylo Ren had the remnants of Vader’s mask in his possession for the last film. Recall that Kylo is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, and now that Luke is finally back in the films the memory of his father will no doubt begin to haunt him as he continues to remember the correlation between Kylo and Vader.
But will he be back? Yes, probably, as a flashback and nothing more. Vader died in Return of the Jedi, remember? Nothing is bringing him back, because if it did then we’d have to argue about why we can’t bring Yoda back, or Obi-wan, or any of the other Jedi that were just as powerful, or even, gasp, Han Solo.
Sometimes you need to let people go to move on. To all those diehard fans that seem to think that Star Wars is the beginning and ending of their reality, grow up just a little and realize that for a story to develop and grow, some characters have to be lost. As a writer and a firm lover of Star Wars since childhood I’ve had to swallow that bitter pill as well and I can tell you that if Kylo does kill Leia as it looks like he might then the story will still go on. Kylo going nuts and killing his parents is not the worst thing in the world no matter that it seems like something Leia would never deserve in a thousand years.
Vader, as Anakin Skywalker, helped to raze the Jedi Temple to the ground, and no one batted an eyelash. He killed children, adolescents, and adults alike and no one seemed to think that was too bad. But maybe it was because those unnamed innocents didn’t have faces or names and were considered to be, dare I say it, collateral damage. Well guess what, so are Han and Leia. Both have lived by the sword for so long that dying by the sword, literally in Han’s case, was not such a shock that a person couldn’t get over it. They’ve both lived on in the Star Wars universe despite the many times that the odds said they should have died.
The great-grandson of Darth Vader is cleaning house it would seem, and if Vader makes any type of appearance in this film it will be as a flashback of Luke’s, not Kylo’s. Luke will recall just what his father said to him during their struggles, and it will either inspire him, or send him further into his current state of exile.
Darth Vader will be there people, but not in the capacity that so many people want.
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