Star Wars Is Making Rey Even More Like Luke Skywalker
The new Star Wars novel Shadow of the Sith makes it clear that the franchise is drawing further parallels between Luke Skywalker and Rey, helping to further connect the protagonists of the three Star Wars film trilogies. The new novel sees Luke teaming up with the spirit of Anakin Skywalker, the central character of the prequel trilogy. However, the book is also significant in connecting Luke to Rey through a number of plot points, and when taken together with media such as the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi it seems as though the Star Wars franchise is deliberately trying to make Rey more like Luke.
Shadow of the Sith is an upcoming novel that sees Luke travel to the hidden Sith planet of Exegol. An excerpt released on the Star Wars website shows Luke having an intense vision of the planet, only being rescued by Anakin Skywalker's force ghost. The story is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, placing it in roughly the same time period as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
The involvement of Exegol is one of the main ways in which Shadow of the Sith connects the original trilogy to the sequels. The addition of a hidden Sith planet in Rise of Skywalker was one of the elements that fans criticized for being inconsistent with previous installments, so tying the setting to Luke is a way to retroactively integrate Exegol into the broader Star Wars narrative. More importantly, however, it also more closely connects Luke Skywalker to Rey's journey. Luke must now overcome the same threats that Rey did, including confronting his own connection with the Dark Side. Furthermore, should Luke's visit to Exegol end in defeat – as it would seem it must, given the events of The Rise of Skywalker – then it sets up Rey's victory as redemption for the Skywalker lineage.
The Shadow of the Sith excerpt also links Luke to Rey through his vivid visions of Exegol, ones that seem to physically transport him there. While the original and prequel trilogies both suggest the Jedi have prophetic powers, Rey is the first shown to directly communicate with a different place, such as her telepathic conversations with Kylo Ren. By showing Luke having similar visions, The Shadow of the Sith brings the original Star Wars hero's powers more in line with Rey's.
Other Star Wars projects have also been drawing connections between Rey and Luke. The recently-released Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer shows a young Luke wearing Anakin's goggles, which connects him not just to his father but also to Rey, who wears a pilot's helmet in one of her first scenes in The Force Awakens. The series has the opportunity to further bring Luke's journey in line with Rey's.
The protagonists of the three Star Wars trilogies have always paralleled each other, each coming from a humble desert planet, being of mysterious but important lineage, and confronting the darkness within themselves. Previews of The Shadow of the Sith and Obi-Wan Kenobi suggest that the franchise is trying to make these connections even more explicit by making Rey more like Luke. The moves could be a way to address fan controversy around Rey and Luke's characterization in the sequel trilogy, as well as a way to emphasize the themes of destiny and recurrence which define the entire Skywalker saga.