"It's about family." Those are the words of the late Carrie Fisher at the end of the behind the scenes reel for Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was released last month. And indeed, Star Wars has always been about family. The original trilogy was a father-son saga, while the prequels centered around a man who falls to the dark side in an attempt to save his family (more or less). This theme has not been abandoned by the sequels (after all, the big twist of The Force Awakens was the reveal of the bad guy's parentage), but based on what we know so far, Star Wars' take on the concept of family might be moving beyond the concept of bloodlines and inheritance.
The Force Awakens did center on family, and not just because the villain of the piece, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), was the sole child of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). Both protagonists - scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley) and former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) - are orphans, lost children who were either taken from or abandoned by their families. Rey longs for parents she doesn't remember, and Finn states that he'll never know his. Both heroes are looking for a place in the galaxy, and so far they have not been revealed to be part of any special family.
Now, it's impossible to talk about family without bringing up the bantha in the room. We do not know if Rey is Luke's daughter, or Obi-Wan's granddaughter, or even Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter. She could still be part of some legacy line. But a recent quote from Entertainment Weekly's The Last Jedi coverage throws a wrench into the idea that she is a legacy character's offspring, or that her relationship to any legacy character she's related to will be an easy one.
An article on Rey and Finn's family history cites Ridley saying that while Rey will find out her mysterious lineage, she'll discover that it doesn't matter that much, and it certainly won't change who she is and who she wants to become. Ridley goes on to say that people can make good and bad decisions, and it could have nothing or everything to do with one's parents. The "everything" could certainly be in reference to Kylo's decision to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and actively choose evil, and the "nothing" could be Rey rejecting her heritage in favor of becoming the person she wants to become. This especially could support a theory in which Rey's parents were Dark Siders; Rey could reject her family's darkness and become a beacon of light.
The parallels to Finn's journey. Kidnapped and raised to be a soldier, Finn also comes from the evil First Order, but losing his close friend and witnessing the massacre of innocent villagers on Jakku causes him to have a crisis of conscious and, like Rey, actively seek to do good. Boyega confirmed that we'd learn more about Finn's recent history and what made him defect - a topic somewhat explored in Greg Rucka's prequel novel Before the Awakening. This confirms that he and Rey will be set on parallel journeys in the film, and re-confirms his role as male lead/co-protagonist. He and Rey are parallels, with Kylo serving as their foil.
Neither Finn or Rey will be journeying alone in this film, and the characters they will be interacting with also have interesting connections to their family (or lack thereof). Rey will be spending a lot of the film with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the Jedi who sought to redeem his own father at all costs. Luke, now having lost his nephew to the Dark Side, is no longer the hopeful figure he once was. He is isolated from his family. On the Resistance side, Finn will be strengthening his relationships with both Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and newcomer Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran). He will no doubt also interact with Leia, who has lost both her husband and son. Familiar loss, it seems, will drive many of the characters.
Both Poe and Rose, the secondary protagonists and characters who round out the film's heroic quartet, also will have to deal with issues of family, despite knowing where they came from. Poe lost his mother, Shara Bey, at a young age, and is now being groomed by Leia to take over the Resistance (Isaac confirmed that Leia views Poe as a surrogate son). Rose and her sister Paige (Veronica Ngo) lost their home to the First Order, and if rumors and speculation are to be believed, Paige will die early on in the film. Both Poe and Rose have lost family, and Finn is looking for a family, or at least a cause worth fighting for. It is likely that these three will form a surrogate family unit, supporting and helping each other. And given that we know Rey will return to the Resistance, it is likely that she will be welcomed into this little band of heroes as well.
Of course, to go this far without mentioning the fact that The Force Awakens explicitly sets up Rey and Finn as each other's new family is almost sacrilege. Despite what some fans would want to believe, the narrative is not subtle about the duo finding what they've been looking for in each other. We are explicitly told that Rey has been waiting for someone to come back for her her entire life; Finn comes back for her on Starkiller. Rey looks at Finn "like no one ever had" and, according to Boyega, part of Finn's motivation at the start of The Last Jedi will be to find Rey and escape the destructive conflict together. With the promise of a reunion on the horizon, we have yet to see whether this relationship will stay friendly or if it will blossom into a romantic one. But the importance of that relationship will no doubt play into the third act of the film.
The Last Jedi might stray from Star Wars tradition and, instead of focusing on family bound by blood, might instead focus on its protagonists creating their own family through shared experiences. Rey and Finn will be on paralleled journeys of self discovery and finding out what role their past plays in their future, and on that journey they will be connecting with other lost souls, such as Luke, Poe, and Rose. With a villain who actively rejects his loving family in favor of evil, this film could blaze a new path for the franchise in saying that your blood family does not matter, but rather your choices do.
It's still too early to entirely tell what the thematic journeys of the film might be. But this interpretation, based on the character development in The Force Awakens and the information we have been given, could point to a fresh angle for a series that has been accused of retreading familiar ground. It would also be an empowering story for the two new leads, to be allowed to choose their own destinies and characters instead of being forced to fit in with what their backstories demand of them. Family will be important to The Last Jedi, that much is certain. But what kind of family that refers to remains to be seen.
