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Could STAR WARS: EPISODE IX Return to Tatooine?

by Eric Diaz
Feb 15 2019 • 2:15 PM

J.J. Abrams has released a photo of the emotional last day of shooting for Star Wars: Episode IX, and it's got our brain buzzing. The photo features a group hug between the sequel trilogy trio of Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega in a desert location. Just which desert planet are our stalwart heroes on? While the assumption would likely be that they have returned to Rey's desolate home planet of Jakku, there is reason to believe we could be going back to Star Wars' ground zero: Tatooine.

So why Tatooine, which Luke Skywalker once described as being the planet farthest away from the bright center of the universe? Lucasfilm has described Episode IX as not only the end of the current sequel trilogy, but the end of the entire Skywalker saga as we know it. More Star Wars films are coming, but the specific storyline centering on the Skywalker family will end with this upcoming chapter. What better place to end it than Tatooine, the place where it all started? The beginning of the saga is The Phantom Menace; it's when Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine. Or, if you're thinking of the original trilogy, Luke's home in the first released Star Wars film, A New Hope, is Tatooine. Whichever way you look at it, Tatooine is the franchise's home sweet home. Given what a sentimental and nostalgic filmmaker Abrams is, we could easily see the saga ending surrounded by the rocks and sand of Tatooine. And hey, the tall, cylindrical shape in the right background of the photo Abrams shared definitely looks reminiscent of Tatooine. Star Wars does love to rhyme, so to speak. A New Hope began on Tatooine, and then Return of the Jedi returned there for the last installment of the original trilogy. So based on the rhyming pattern, this could be Jakku again, given that planet's importance in The Force Awakens. But we are not-so-secretly hoping the Skywalker Saga ends on the world that made us want to travel to the galaxy far, far away in the first place.

Images: Lucasfilm