Acting for Two: Mark Hamill is spotted credited as one of the long list of minor characters. Specifically, he voices Dobbu Scay, the diminutive alien who mistakes BB-8 for a slot machine in Canto Bight.
Rian Johnson stated that Rose Tico was originally written to be a "grumpy, Eeyore type", but when Kelly Marie Tran was cast, Johnson liked her upbeat, optimistic attitude and so reworked Rose's personality around Tran's own.
Actor Mark Lewis Jones had the idea to give Captain Moden Canady of the First Order Dreadnought Fulminatrix a "posh Welsh accent", to which Johnson agreed.
In contrast to his notably more tepid feelings about The Force Awakens, Lucas called this one "beautifully made" and had nothing but complimentary things to say to Johnson after viewing.
J. J. Abrams, the director of the previous film, also said that the script for this film was so good, he wished he had made it.
Hamill was very pleased that they used a physical Yoda.
The criticism of the Jedi Order as an ineffective, hypocritical religious Order has long existed within the fandom and Star Wars Legends ever since the prequels. Here, Luke said as much about the Jedi and even Yoda admits their failures. Several of Luke's comments seem incredibly similar to Kreia's from Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Specifically, that the Jedi don't have a monopoly on wisdom or understanding of the Force, and being able to use the Force doesn't automatically make one a superior being. This is shown in Kylo being one of the most unstable and psychotic Star Wars villains yet seen.
Kylo Ren's desperate attempt to look as cool as Vader in the first film was exaggerated to full on Emo Teen in the fandom, and he wears a Vader-like cape in his first scene in TLJ. Here, Snoke refers to Kylo as "a child in a mask", on par with the fans, and overtly mocked him by saying he should "take that ridiculous thing off." Kylo, in a fit of rage, destroys the mask (along with part of the elevator he's in) and spends the remainder of the film without it, and doesn't wear the cape anymore until the very end.
The concept of "Force Bond" which Snoke created between Rey and Kylo as a way to find Luke's location originated from Star Wars Legends, the most famous case being Knights of the Old Republic.
R2-D2's beeps being mostly censorship for his constant swearing is a very old joke. It gets Lampshaded when he greets Luke and Luke yells at him to watch his mouth.
Rather fittingly, the reveal of Rey's parentage was subject to this as a lot of people seem to remember Kylo telling it to her, when she actually says it herself when he prods her to say what she's always known. Probably not coincidentally, the first version would be a lot easier to retcon away with the viewer's preferred parents for her by just having him be lying about it (although vague recollections of her childhood aren't exactly ironclad either).
Contrary to what the various memes might tell you, Luke doesn't say "The sacred texts!" when Yoda seemingly destroys the ancient Jedi scriptures, but "The sacred Jedi texts!"
The phrase "The Force is female" is not spoken in this film, nor is anything even vaguely similar said by any character. It's actually from a Nike advertising campaign that came out just before the film did.
Not to the same extent as The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker because original trilogy leads Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa) have significant roles, but both still play supporting characters despite their top billing. Daisy Ridley (Rey), the lead, is credited below the original stars and film's antagonist Adam Driver, as with the other installments of the sequel trilogy.
There's also Lupita Nyong'o (Maz Kanata), who's billed as a lead, but appears in only one scene for a few seconds as a hologram. Nyongo and Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma) are listed higher in credits than Tran (Rose Tico) and Dern (Vice Admiral Holdo) for their minor characters, while the latter two have significantly more screentime and importance to the story.
Andy Serkis disagreed with the decision to kill Snoke in this film. With hindsight, he sarcastically described his role as "the character that no one knows where he came from, where he's going to, what he is, or anything about him, including myself." He would later talk about how much he invested into the role, which is why he was particularly "gutted" when he read that he dies.
Anthony Danielsregrets how minimal C-3PO's role was in the film, feeling that Threepio just served like a "table decoration" and believing that he was worth more than that.
Tom Kane vocally expressed his dislike of how Admiral Ackbar was killed off, referring to it as a total waste of a beloved character while criticizing the use of Holdo, whose role he felt suited Ackbar better.
Ackbar's physical actor, Tim Rose, felt similarly regarding the usage of Ackbar. That his final time wearing the suit was just for an "It's a wrap!" joke had him crying inside the suit. He also was displeased with the "student surpass the master" theme, feeling that the practical effects industry was replaced with CGI as opposed to being improved upon.
John Boyega has gone on to admit that he disagreed with a lot of the film's creative choices, calling it a bit "iffy". He particularly criticized the fact that his character was kept away from the rest of the main cast for much of the plot. He would later express his dissatisfaction in somewhat sharper tones in a later interview, criticizing the way the film treated not just Finn, but every other prominent character played by non-white actors, accusing Disney of making an executive decision to sideline and downplay their roles in favor of the white characters' stories.
"You get yourself involved in projects and you're not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. [...] Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, 'I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience...' Nah, nah, nah. I'll take that deal when it's a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let's be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I'm not exposing anything."
Abrams, director of The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, praised the film, but also said that he understands its divisiveness among fans:
"It's a bit of a meta approach to the story. I don't think that people go to Star Wars to be told, 'This doesn't matter'. The Rise of Skywalker needed a pendulum swing in one direction in order to swing in the other."
While a mild case compared to others, Carrie Fisher's joking remark of Rian Johnson being "an asshole" was followed by a sincere admittance that she found him domineering as a director even though he's not like that when out of the director's chair, and heavily implied she wasn't a fan of Leia being placed in a coma for a significant portion of the movie.
Mark Hamill has also expressed his disagreeing vision regarding the direction of his character.
"I said to Rian, you got it wrong, the Jedi don't give up, much less go hide on a island. So, right at the beginning, we were completely at odds." "Who is this guy? How did the most optimistic, hopeful character in the galaxy turn into this hermit who says it time for the Jedi to end? I read it and said 'what'? That's not what a Jedi does."
Creator's Pest: Johnson admitted to disliking Supreme Leader Snoke, perhaps accounting for why the character gets a fairly unceremonious death halfway through the film.
Darkhorse Casting: Like Ridley before The Force Awakens came out, Tran is an unknown actress whose resume includes mostly short films, TV guest spots and web videos (including roles on CollegeHumor).
Deleted Role: The much-ballyhooed cameos by Princes Harry and William ended up being cut from the theatrical release, as did another one from Tom Hardy (which, as a fully suited Stormtrooper, would have been yet another role where his face is covered up).
Executive Meddling: The much-ridiculed "Leia Poppins" scene came about because producer Kathleen Kennedy told Johnson that she wanted to see Leia use force powers other than her mental connection to those close to her.
Flip-Flop of God: Johnson said in a interview that while he considered Kylo's story about Rey's parents to be legit, he noted that neither Abrams or Lucasfilm is obligated to stick with it for The Rise of Skywalker, even invoking "from a certain point of view". That said, Ridley has stated that Abrams, at least, had the same idea as Johnson. Though in this case, this is less "Flip Flop of God" and more "another god may have other ideas."
In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to "our princess", Carrie Fisher, after her passing in December 2016.
Meme Acknowledgment: Shortly after The Force Awakens came out, webcomic artists thought it would be funny to have Luke train Rey by pretending to be Yoda (almost always by making Rey carry him on her back). Hamill thought it was funny, too, judging by this tweet.
Milestone Celebration: The film marked the 40th Anniversary of the Star Wars Saga, though it was originally intended to premiere closer to the release date of the original film (see "What Could Have Been" below). The film logo is even red, fitting of a ruby jubilee. It was also released the year of the 85th birthday of franchise composer John Williams.
Missing Trailer Scene: The scene of Rey charging across Ahch-To, lightsaber ignited, is not in the film, being part of the deleted scene about the third lesson. She does attack Luke with the saber in a moment of rage, but her hair is down as opposed to in buns, and the angle is completely different.
Due to original Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew's health issues, Joonas Suotamo already did all of Chewie's action scenes in The Force Awakens, and here fully replaces Mayhew.
Jesús Barrero, the Latin American Spanish voice for Luke Skywalker, succumbed to complications from lung cancer on February 17, 2016, only a few months after completing his work on his final film, The Force Awakens. His nephew Víctor Covarrubias voiced Luke in the trailer, and Beto Castillo (who voiced the titular character in Doctor Strange) voiced him in the film proper. Also, Yoda was voiced, bizarrely enough, by Guilherme Briggs, Yoda's Brazilian Portuguese voice actor, rather than Arturo Mercado, his voice actor since the very original trilogy.
For the European Spanish dub, Yoda was voiced by Ángel Amorós as in Rebels, as most of Yoda's actors have died including Ricardo Palmerola, the actor that voiced him in the prequel trilogy and other media such as The Clone Wars. Oddly enough Amorós served as the replacement for Jordi Royo, who also voices Mace Windu and was Palmerola's substitute in The Clone Wars, because Rebels was recorded in Madrid rather than in Barcelona where most Star Wars's main media were recorded.
In a similar way in the Japanese dub, Yoda is voiced by Yohei Tadano, replacing Mahito Tsujimura and Ichirō Nagai, his voice actors for the original and prequel trilogies, respectively.
Due to the death of Erik Bauersfield in early 2016, Admiral Ackbar is voiced by Tom Kane, cementing Kane's place as the de facto voice of Ackbar (Kane had been voicing Ackbar in media such as the Battlefront reboot series and the LEGO spin-offs).
Tran is a huge fan of Boyega. Overlaps with Meta Casting as Rose harbored massive admiration towards Finn.
Dern first started wanting to follow herparents into acting when she saw A New Hope at age 10.
Reality Subtext: The fact that Rey was just a nobody up until this point also reminds us of the fact that Ridley was just a Hollywood nobody until this franchise.
Recycled Premise: Finn's storyline, on paper, is the same one that he had in The Force Awakens — he's someone that wants to run away from the war and gets sucked into a mission before he can do that. The key difference is that it has a separate function in each movie; while in the previous film, Finn was learning to fight for someone else, The Last Jedi gives him reason to fight for a higher cause.
Release Date Change: The release was planned for May 26, 2017, but got delayed until December 15, 2017 due to rewrites expanding the parts of the lead characters introduced in The Force Awakens (and possibly due to a writers strike in the UK that had been brewing). Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales took the original spot.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: The Porgs were created because the puffins on Skellig Michael (where the scenes on Ach-To were filmed) kept getting in the shots, and because puffins were an indigenous, endangered species the crew were forbidden from removing them. Rian Johnson came up with the idea of digitally replacing them with a science-fictional equivalent because he liked the idea that the island would have its own native species.
Spoiled by the Cast List: The first indication the public received that Yoda would appear in the film was when Frank Oz appeared at the red carpet premiere.
When Finn tells him he's wrong after DJ betrays the Resistance, DJ's response was written as something like "wrong and rich". Instead, del Toro enigmatically replied "Maybe", which was kept because it in perfectly with the amoral and ambiguous nature of DJ's character. It was also his idea that DJ would take Rose's necklace as collateral but return it to her later, helping to convince the audience that maybe he wasn't all that bad.
Some sources have reported that the gag when Hux pulls out his sidearm on an unconscious Kylo, only to put it back in his coat when Ren wakes up was an ad-lib by Gleeson, who has confirmed that it was at least his idea.
Hamill has stated that Luke kissing Leia's forehead was spontaneous and unscripted.
When filming Holdo firing her blaster, Laura Dern would say “pew!” and couldn’t stop even after being informed the sound effect would be added later. She can still be seen saying “pew” in the final shot, though muted.
During the fight with Snoke’s guards, Daisy Ridley shouted “a curse word that makes Americans very uncomfortable” and this was the shot that ended up in the film, though obviously without the curse.
At the start of the writing process, the crew laid out a spreadsheet of absolutely every possible answer to Rey's parentage they could think of, no matter how likely it was to actually be used. This included her being the blood relative of several old characters, an amnesiac padawan of Luke's order who survived the Ren purge, and even some kind of super advanced droid.
Early script ideas involved Luke being blind, but this was ultimately decided against. It should be noted that this was before Donnie Yen suggested a similar concept with Chirrut in Rogue One. Funnily enough, Mark Hamill played a blind character in Season 2 of Trollhunters, which was released the very same day.
Obi-Wan was considered to appear as a Force ghost, with Ewan McGregor being eager to play the part. This was removed as the only version of Obi-Wan Luke has interacted with is Alec Guinness, who died in 2000, and Johnson felt that having Luke interact with Ewan's Obi-Wan would have felt too weird.
Lando Calrissian was going to be Finn and Rose's contact at the casino (note Maz talking up the guy without giving his name like it's going to be some big reveal), and he would either screw up their quest by accident or betray them intentionally like DJ did. This was discarded when the crew considered that having Billy Dee Williams return just to fail in his mission would be an insult to the character, as well as that Lando would never betray the Rebellion a second time after his character development in The Empire Strikes Back.
According to leaked info in Reddit, in an early draft Poe personally accompanied Finn and the character that became Rose in their mission, while the character that became DJ was a bounty hunter chasing them. Rose was apparently a refugee fleeing from the First Order, who Finn fell in love with quickly, with the big twist that she was the one who betrayed the Resistance, not DJ. By the ending, Poe was sent to a First Order prison planet, echoing Han being captured at the end of Empire Strikes Back. The rest of the plot was identical to the final version.
Rose was initially going to be mistrustful of Finn, but Kelly Marie Tran's real life personality made Johnson realize it would be funnier with Rose being a fangirl of his.
As told in the official book The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke was going to be visited by a Sith Force Ghost while meditating in his hut on Ahch-To, with the Sith being described as an "all-powerful Sith Lord who ruled over the Dark Side of the Force from the Afterlife" and was also described to be "pulling Snoke's strings" from behind the scenes. The identity of this Sith was not revealed in the book, leaving ambiguous whether it is Palpatine, Plagueis, Bane, or any other unknown Sith. However, this idea might have inspired the creators's late decision to bring Palpatine back in The Rise of Skywalker.
Also in the art book, Finn and Rose were going to break into a store in Canto Bight and steal a tux and gown, with a She Cleans Up Nicely effect for Rose in her dress and Finn having his tux on backwards. That idea was scrapped in favor of the two sticking with their Resistance gear. In early drafts, they were also going to meet the Master Codebreaker in the cabaret room, be taken along for a quest to retrieve a MacGuffin from a warlord, and be arrested on the casino's rooftop.
The book details a few variations of the laundry room scene where Finn, Rose, and DJ get their disguises. In one, the trio encounter a group of stormtroopers only to realize they are empty suits of armor on a clothing conveyor belt. Another would have had them follow a lint trail to the laundry room.
The producers intended to show Phasma's fully unmasked face, even considering to portray her with horrible battle scars, but Daisy Ridley nixed that idea, instead proposing to show only her eye.
The film's run time originally exceeded three hours before Johnson was forced to cut it down. Reportedly, he removed between 45 and 60 minutes.
Finn would've been reintroduced as one of Paige Tico's gunners and she would've ended up dying in his arms; Rian Johnson changed this because he felt he "couldn't pay it off".
Rian Johnson considered having Luke be visited by Anakin, bringing back Hayden Christensen, to help realize how he needs to deal with Rey, but changed it to Yoda as Luke had never known his pre-Dark Side father. Christensen would return to the role a few years later in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Johnson clarified that "I have a bad feeling about this" is said by BB-8 as he and Poe are heading into the first battle (hence Poe's response "Happy beeps here, buddy, c'mon.").
At Celebration Chicago, it was confirmed that Phasma was Killed Off for Real on the Supremacy.
Following a 2021 interview with Johnson, Sariah Wilson tweeted that Johnson confirmed he always intended for Rey and Kylo's relationship to be romantic.
Word of Saint Paul: To get into Luke's mindset, Hamill imagined that Luke had a child who accidentally killed themself while playing with Luke's lightsaber.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Zig-Zagged. Johnson has admitted there were no payoffs planned for the setups in The Force Awakens, that he had to resolve them, and that his payoffs could be undone by Abrams next film; however, the plot line of Luke training Rey at the first Jedi temple comes from one of George Lucas' ideas for VII, Johnson consulted the Lucasfilm Story Group to ensure his story fit within the canon, and Ridley says that as far as she knows, there actually is a general consensus on the main lines of the trilogy, each author just realizes it in his own way. She also adds that Johnson and Abrams did meet to discuss things and that Abrams expressedenthusiasm towards Johnson's script.
Written by Cast Member: Johnson and Christie created Captain Phasma's backstory while making The Last Jedi. This is covered in Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi books, Phasma and Captain Phasma. And according to Word of God, Fisher also helped with the screenplay (though oddly not related to Leia's Story Arc).
Rogue One director Gareth Edwards has a small cameo as a Resistance soldier in the trench on Crait. He previously cameoed as the Rebel soldier who launched the Tantive IV in Rogue One itself. (Last Jedi director Johnson and producer Ram Bergman also cameoed in Rogue One, playing Death Star technicians visible as the Death Star superlaser prepares to fire on Jedha.)
Captain Moden Canady of the Fulminatrix is played by Mark Lewis Jones, who previously had a number of voice credits in Star Wars: The Old Republic, including Darths Andru, Decimus, and Vengean. He also auditioned for roles in The Force Awakens and Rogue One but didn't get them.
called this one "beautifully made" and had nothing but complimentary things to say to Johnson after viewing.