Star Wars: Is There a Secret Jedi Order in the Sequels?
One interesting theory that states there could be a Secret Jedi Order during the Sequel Trilogy. Could it be true?
Star Wars has to some degree always been about the Jedi. The Prequels chronicled their fall. The Original Trilogy followed their return. But in the Sequels, the Jedi are still gone, with their return having fizzled out. However, one fan theory posits that the Jedi are not as gone as believed. There might even have been a secret Jedi Order during the Sequels.
The Order That Fell
In the old Star Wars Expanded Universe one of the major plots was Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order. A ton of books and stories were devoted to this. When Disney acquired the franchise they decided to get rid of the EU. Despite this many fans thought that the new Sequel Moives would follow a similar plot. Or that at least they would feature the New Jedi Order. Now the Sequels did steal quite a bit from the old EU. However, this particular expectation was quite subverted.
In the Sequels there is no New Jedi Order. Luke did make an attempt to restore it, but he failed. Ben Solo, under the influence of Snoke/Palpatine, destroyed the academy and killed some of the students. Luke went into exile and that was the end of it, until Rey becomes the last Jedi or something like that. However, some people think that Luke’s Order was not the only Jedi order.
There are a Lot of Missing Jedi
Some people have noted that there are several Jedi whose fates are unknown as of the Sequels. Grogu, Ezra, Sabine Wren, and Ahsoka Tano are all known to have survived the fall of the Empire and lived during the New Republic period. They are not the only ones either.
A whole other group of Jedi, such as Cal Kestis and others mentioned in the Kenobi show survived Order 66 and have uncertain fates past that. We know there were a lot of other Force-sensitive children out there as well. Even if not all of these Jedi are alive as of the Sequels, it’s quite possible that some new Jedi were trained in the 50ish years between the Fall of the Republic and the Sequels.
Was There a Hidden Order?
As far as we know none of these missing Jedi were tied to Luke and his new academy. In fact, we know that Grogu left after being offered a spot there. Ashoka as well it seems declined to really be a part of it, as she wasn’t a “Jedi”. On the other hand, Ahsoka has ties to both Grogu and the missing (or maybe soon-found) Ezra. Ahsoka has also trained her own Padawan in Sabine. Separately we have Baylan Skoll, a possibly fallen Jedi who trained Shin Hati as his Padawan. We don’t know if there are more like him.
In essence, there is an entire connected group of Jedi that is separate from Luke Skywalker. They fought their own Rebellion and are only loosely in contact. It’s almost like they have their own hidden Order, doing their own thing. But why would they not join with Luke?
A League of Their Own
Well, there are a couple of reasons they might have gone their own way. With the exceptions of Ezra and Sabine, all the other missing Jedi were Jedi, or part of the Order at least, before the Fall. They effectively come from a different Jedi tradition, one trained in the Jedi Temple. Even Ezra was a Jedi before Luke and had more formal training and contact with the old temple and Order ways.
Luke, on the other hand, is kind of finding his own way. Interestingly however, this doesn’t seem to be a case of Luke being modern and introducing new ideas, while the old Jedi are hidebound. It honestly seems like Luke is trying too hard to recreate the old Order and making the same mistakes. We see this with him forcing Grogu to choose between attachment and being a Jedi.
On the other hand, the survivors of Order 66 seemed to have learned from the Order’s mistakes. Especially Ahsoka. They might be more willing to try new things, to reform the Order. But to do this they would need a secret Jedi Order.
Another reason to do things separately is that they knew Luke would be a target. After Endor Luke was one of the most famous people in the Galaxy. He then publicly set about trying to rebuild the Jedi. It would have been clear in any way that he was always going to be a target. Any surviving Imperials or Sith would want a shot at him and his new Jedi.
On the other hand, they might ignore a hidden Order, training new Jedi and building up its strength in secret. These Jedi, unlike Luke, were used to hiding and doing things in secret. They were all traumatized by the Fall of the Jedi and the Empire. If they disagreed with Luke it might make perfect sense to do their own thing, hidden in the Unknown Regions maybe, and let Luke take the heat. Or maybe Ahsoka and Sabine are trapped in another galaxy the whole time and training new Jedi.
Time For Rey?
If this theory is true then there might just be a whole secret Jedi Order ready to meet Rey in the new movie. It also means there are a lot of cool stories to tell about this hidden Order. It could be something the Disney live-action shows are even building up to. Slowly gathering Jedi together for something. Maybe it’s not even trying to hide, just this separate Order doing something out on the fringes of space and unnoticed. I mean, we haven’t seen any Yuuzhan Vong lately.
Let us know what you think of this theory, down in the comments!
