Getty Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.
Let’s be honest: It’s completely heartbreaking watching Leia’s long goodbye in Star Wars: The Last Jedi….because we all know how that one ends, and she didn’t at the time she filmed it. Yet she gave us this chance. Already gone in a mortal sense, she returns, on screen, for a much-needed swan song, providing gravitas and star power to every single moment she’s in the movie. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)
When Leia’s briefly immobilized and hospitalized, you can’t help but think of the real-life parallels. When she rises from her hospital bed to help save the day, you can’t help but wish she could have done so in real-life too. Such is the way of mortality. It catches up to all of us, even a princess (Last Jedi was filmed before Fisher died).
Actress Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia Organa character and actor Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker character from “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” are shown on screen while musicians perform during “Star Wars: In Concert” at the Orleans Arena May 29, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
All of that has a lot of people wondering whether there is an end credits scene in The Last Jedi.
There is not, technically, an end credits scene, at least not in the form of additional footage. Instead, shortly after the movie ends, you see a tribute to Carrie Fisher, elegant in its simplicity. The best tribute to her was, of course, her final performance and the way Last Jedi seamlessly lets go of the past (without vanquishing it) to begin the new, even as the force and the light remain the constant thread linking past and present. After that point, nothing surprising appears after the credits. Some fan sites had reported there would be an end credits scene. Metro UK notes that Fisher starred in five Star Wars movies.
The Leia/Carrie Fisher tribute reads simply:
In loving memory of our princess, Carrie Fisher
There’s something fitting about the fact that Rey (Daisy Ridley) is revealed to not be of royal blood. She’s not Leia’s daughter, and she’s not Han’s either (at least as far as we know).
Rey’s told – with a certain scorn – that she’s a “nobody,” the daughter of junk dealers who abandoned her for drink. The message is clear: The torch has been passed, and you don’t need a title or elite status or a blood line to harness the power of good. It’s in all of us (and darkness might be too, to varying degrees), if only we could find a way to reach for it. In an era of the anti-elite, it’s a fitting working class message, where the daughter of junk dealers might just be the heir apparent to the Jedi legacy. The Last Jedi? No… it’s not a mountain or a pile of books that makes one one.
People became conditioned to expect end credits surprises. The trend began with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003 and escalated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and Fox’s X-Men movies. Even Warner Bros.’ Kong: Skull Island had a post-credit scene. There was also a post-credits scene for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Guardians 2 featured five quick scenes, many of which were just gags. However, Wonder Woman didn’t have an end credits scene. And, as Polygon notes, “Lucasfilm has never included a post-credits scene in a Star Wars movie before.” In the case of Last Jedi, though, it’s worth not leaving when the credits start. The princess deserves the honor. (Of course, her daughter, Billie Lourd, has a bit part as a lieutenant in the movie, so maybe we will see more of the royal line in the future after all.)