Merchandise Leak Provides Clues For The Last Jedi
With the eighth episode of the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi, due out in a matter of months, the floodgates are slowly starting to creep open as small morsels of information leak out about the highly secretive production. The first things up the merchandising, which have offered up some potentially revelatory clues as to what exactly might happen in Rian Johnson’s progression of the Skywalker storyline.

First up is the rumored “last Jedi” himself: Luke Skywalker. A very detailed look at the character’s Funko Pop bobblehead was leaked last week, along with the rest of the lineup, revealing better looks at the new characters like Rose, Snoke, and what appears to be a First Order version of BB-8 called BB-9E.
Luke’s Pop offers us an up-close look at his costume, his walking stick, and a noticeable bit of red under his chin. It turns out that Luke is wearing a red Kyber crystal around his neck, which is an unexpected callback to something we saw in Rogue One. In that film, the heroine Jyn Erso carried a Kyber crystal her mother gave her around her neck throughout her life — something that apparently was never found by the Empire, despite repeatedly having Jyn in their custody while they were mining the entire galaxy looking for Kyber crystals.
What’s even more interesting is that the crystal is red — could Luke be wearing the gem from the saber of his late father, Anakin Skywalker? And does this lend credence to a fan theory that Snoke is trying to assemble various objects relevant to Darth Vader in an attempt to resurrect him?
Or, as is this writer’s increasingly valid theory, is Snoke Anakin Skywalker risen from the dead? The poor shape of the body, the visual symmetry of both Snoke’s and Anakin’s scars, the burning/warping of the Vader mask we see Kylo praying to in The Force Awakens matches with the parts of Snoke’s face that are the most damaged. The possibility that Vader may have some point mastered the Darth Plagueis ability to resurrect the dead all point to the distinct possibility that Snoke is a villain we’ve seen many times before.

Staying on Snoke, another toy leak shows us what appears to be Snoke’s throne room. The BB-8 2-in-1 Mega Playset is a large BB-8 that opens up to reveal Snoke’s throne room, where figurines like Snoke and his Praetorian guard can fight with figurines for Rey, BB-8, Finn, or others. The artwork on the box depicts a scene of Rey, Finn, newcomer Rose, and BB-8 infiltrating Snoke’s lair as he sits on his throne at the very top, watching everything happen from a very Emperor-esque vantage point. Is this a scene from the movie? Will The Last Jedi include a confrontation between Rey and Snoke?

Snoke’s Praetorian guards are an upgrade from the red-robed guards we saw briefly in the Prequels and only a bit more in the Original Trilogy. Inspired by samurai, the all-red warriors are impressive, and a new toy leak gives us a nicely detailed look at their outfits from all sides.

We also have a Black Series six-inch figurine leak showing Finn dressed in a “First Order disguise." We didn’t get enough of heroes dressing up as the bad guys to infiltrate their base in any of the other Star Wars movies (including the one that came out less than a year ago).

Finally, we have the Porgs, which Johnson explained in a recent Entertainment Weekly article were small creatures that cover the island of Ahch-To, the site of an ancient Jedi Temple where we left Luke and Rey at the end of The Force Awakens. While the better question seems to be why we never saw any of these Furby-like creatures in Episode VII, let’s just take a minute to appreciate how adorable they look. Seriously, even their Funko Pop looks the same as their regular appearance in the movie. These Porgs were designed to sell, and sell they will. Parents of little children — expect mad requests for these.
Well, there you have it for now. Tune into our weekly Nerd it Here First podcast to find out what the site’s writers and editors think of everything we’ve seen from the year’s most wildly anticipated movie. And tell us what YOU think in the comments below!