Every journey begins with a first step, and a lot of the first steps by protagonists in Star Wars history tend to have been on a planet with a heaping ton of sand. Tatooine, and now Jakku, have been the key starting points for the ever-evolving fortunes of The Force, and it doesn't look like we'll be going back to either planet in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, at least not that we know of. That on the table, if the early word on Star Wars: Episode IX is any indication, it sounds like we're going to be going back to Jakku soon. This speculation exists thanks to some comments made by Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast member DJ Mark Pickup, who said,
I've heard wind that number 9 is starting to be filmed next year, and they are doing a scene back in Abu Dhabi.
While it seems a bit circumstantial, the fact remains that Star Wars: The Force Awakens filmed part of the movie in Abu Dhabi, and the location was used for the Jakku sequences. It was there that Mark and Mel Pickup, an artist and a DJ, respectively, played two of the characters that made up the local color of the planet - and they talked about their experience recently on the Everything Geek Podcast. So it does seem somewhat legit that the two of them would be able to pick up on the signs that Star Wars: Episode IX would be returning to where we first met Daisy Ridley's Rey and John Boyega's Finn. But what could a return to Jakku mean for the final film in the trilogy of new Star Wars episodic installments?
Rey's return to the planet on which she served as a slave sounds a lot like the return that Anakin made during Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones. With the Jedi training she'll receive in Star Wars: The Last Jedi under her belt, she could return to Jakku to possibly uncover more clues to her past. Or, if we're given the keys to Rey's lineage in Rian Johnson's turn at bat, then there's a possibility that this tidbit could mean that Rey's parents perhaps hid something of great importance on Jakku, along with their precious youngling. It could be something that could help cement the hypothetical Grey Jedi order that brings true balance to The Force.
Bookending a saga with a familiar venue is not a surprising feat, especially in the Star Wars galaxy. Though, for Rey's sake, we wonder what sort of heroic tests she'll have to face when and if she returns to Jakku. The Skywalkers can tell you that returning to Tatooine involved some heavy matters on their end, and why would Rey's story be any different? We'll have to wait for Star Wars: Episode IX to show us the truth when it delivers the presumably final installment to the Skywalker Saga on May 24, 2019. Meanwhile, Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives much earlier, set for release on December 15th.
