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The Last Jedi is basically Harry Potter - what does that mean for Episode IX?

There’s no getting away from it, The Last Jedi is essentially Harry Potter hiding under an invisibility cloak.

We could be here for 12 parsecs explaining all the similarities, but here’s a handful of our favourites.

Connection between the hero and the villain

Like Harry Potter and Voldemort, Rey and Kylo Ren have a connection that allows them to share thoughts and feelings from a great distance. ForceTime isn’t quite as cool as being connected by a massive scar that looks like a lightning bolt, but it’s still quite good. And, to be fair, Kylo already has a scar as impressive as Harry’s.

Kylo Ren looks a lot like Snape, Snoke looks a lot like Voldemort

Once Kylo smashes up his rad mask, and we’re able to get a proper look at his face for an extended period of time, the similarities between how Adam Driver’s styled and Snape are fairly striking. The same goes for Snoke, who has the same kind of messed-up pale face that sent shivers down the spines of Potter geeks whenever they gawped at Voldemort.

And, as with those two, Ren (Snape) was actually working against the big bad, Snoke (Voldemort), using his magic powers to help take him down for good and save the main hero, Rey (Harry).

Baddies who actually are goodies in disguise

But there’s another Snape in the film. Laura Dern’s Holdo looks to be a total baddie for most of the movie, patronising Poe Dameron and teaching him more than one harsh lesson over the course of the narrative.

Eventually, she’s revealed to have a secret plan that she probably should’ve explained to the hero. As a result of that plan, she ends up dying.

Let’s hope Holdo’s dating Snape in heaven as they’re super well-matched.

Rey looks in the mirror to see her parents

In The Last Jedi, the Dark Side is represented by a (presumably cursed) mirror, which shows Rey what she most wants to see when she looks into it; her parents. In The Philosopher’s Stone, Harry looks into a cursed mirror, which shows him what he most wants to see when he looks into it; his parents.

We’re surprised Disney hasn’t looked into the mirror and seen themselves holding a fairly massive copyright claim from JK Rowling, to be honest.

Fantastic beasts

Hagrid is a hairy man who looks after various creatures that end up saving the day. Chewbacca is a hairy wookiee who looks after Porgs that end up saving the day.

But, with the amount of high-concept critters running around The Last Jedi, we were half-expecting it to be announced as a stealth sequel to Fantastic Beasts. Those crystal foxes could easily be shoved into Newt Scamander’s sack.

Parental figures die

Harry doesn’t have the best luck with father figures. Whether it’s Sirius or Dumbledore, whoever he uses as a surrogate parent ends up dying. Maybe someone should have mentioned this to Han and Luke when Rey started sniffing around for substitute dads, as she has exactly the same bad luck.

Includes a projection that can’t be harmed

Because what’s Luke at the end of The Last Jedi if not a massive Patronus? As described in The Prisoner Of Azakaban, a Patronus is a ‘a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it.’

Hmm, ‘a positive force’ that’s a ‘projection of hope’ that ‘can’t be hurt?’ That all sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?

They both use a John Williams score

Though we can’t really blame Harry Potter for this one, Star Wars did kind of get there first.

The future of Star Wars

But what do all of these similarities mean for Episode IX? Can we use Harry Potter to predict where JJ and Disney are taking the franchise? Well, yes, yes we definitely can.

Because how did The Last Jedi end? With Rey holding a bunch of books, and a child looking to the stars, using magic to make a broom float (he’s one step away from playing Quidditch).

We’ve already heard there’s going to be a time-jump in Episode IX, so it seems pretty clear where this is all going.

All of our new Star Wars heroes are going to train Harry, Ron and Hermione stand-ins to be a new kind of Jedi.

Yep, we’re going to see a Star Wars take on Hogwarts, and if Rey revealed as some kind of high-level teacher early on in Episode IX, we’ll eat our Sorting Hat.

We’ll open with a scene that mirrors the opening of The Force Awakens, with a spaceship landing in a village. The villagers will cower in fear as the ship’s door slowly opens – but Kylo Ren doesn’t step out, Finn does. “My name’s Finn, I’m here to rescue you,” he says.

Finn takes a bunch of force-sensitive children to a hidden base, where all of our Last Jedi pals are busy training new recruits.

Rey will teach the ways of the force, using the books she rescued from Ach-To. Poe will train pilots, and pass on the lessons he learned from Holda and Leia. Finn will train… Janitors? We’re not sure what Finn will do, but you can bet he’ll team up with Rose Tico to do it. Because, after all, as Rose said, “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.”

With that in mind, we’d expect Rose and Finn to be at the frontline of the Resistance teams tasked with rescuing force-sensitive kids. What’s a more perfect encapsulation of that message than saving lost kids and giving them the strength to look after themselves?

Kylo will find out about all this, of course, and he’ll attack the Jedi school – just like he did when he thought Luke betrayed him. Think The Battle Of Hogwarts, but with laser swords instead of magic wands. Voldemort had the Deatheaters, Ren will have the Knights Of Ren (yep, they’ll be back in Episode IX), but the vibe will be very similar.

The kids, like the Ewoks before them, will be surprisingly good at fending off Stormtroopers, allowing Rey to have a final confrontation with Kylo Ren, which she’ll win – but after he’s had a moment of redemption, allowing JJ to follow-up his Force Awakens remix with a take on Return Of The Jedi, complete with force ghost Ben Solo joining Han and Luke to wave at Rey before we cut to credits and the Harry Potter theme, sorry, Star Wars music plays.

But what are your predictions for Star Wars: Episode IX? Let us know in the comments.


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