What Are Force Trees and Are They Significant in ‘The Last Jedi’?

Kim Taylor-Foster
Movies Star Wars
Movies Star Wars

There have been a number of rumours swirling around Star Wars: The Last Jedi ever since we knew it was a thing. The film is nearly upon us, and with the entire production still shrouded in secrecy, we take a look at one of the much talked-about elements that could appear in the film and have a significant impact on the franchise – Force trees.

What Are Force Trees?

First made canon in a four-part comic-book series called Star Wars: Shattered Empire, the Force trees we encounter among the pages of those 2015-published comics are two offshoots of The Great Tree. This ancient Force-sensitive tree grew within the grounds of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Following the Clone Wars, the tree was removed when Darth Sidious converted the temple into an Imperial Palace.

Star Wars-Force Trees
The Force trees from Star Wars: Shattered Empire.

In the comics, which bridge some of the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, it’s revealed that the two offshoots are being kept in a secret Imperial base. Luke Skywalker, who appears in the comics, says that they’re all that remains of the tree from Coruscant’s Jedi Temple. He and another rebel, Shara Bey, make it their mission to recover the trees.

This is where it gets really interesting, because Shara Bey is the mother of a certain Poe Dameron.

Will This Affect the Plot of ‘The Last Jedi’?

Firstly, there’s more to the story in the comics that could have a direct influence on the plot of The Last Jedi. After accepting one of the offshoots as a gift from Luke, Shara and her husband Kes Dameron plant it in the garden of their home on Yavin 4. Their son, Poe, would later play on the tree as a child.

So the question is, if Poe grew up around the tree, has it affected him? Could it be that Poe is, like Rey, Force-sensitive?

Star Wars
Is the Force strong with Poe Dameron?

A leaked excerpt from the script last year corresponds with a theory that was floating around involving Force trees. The scene supposedly involves a conversation between Luke, Rey and Yoda and contains a vision in which two children, a boy and a girl, are “playing near a tree on an alien planet”. The tree affects both of them very significantly.

We don’t know how reliable the information is so won’t delve deeper into the details but it could suggest that Rey is an incarnation of the girl in the vision. While the boy could potentially be Poe. It would explain how come Rey is attuned to the Force… and could even indicate that the two are brother and sister. This would neatly mirror the plot from Star Wars past which featured estranged Force-sensitive siblings in the form of Luke and Leia.

Where Else Have We Seen Force Trees?

The Great Tree popped up on screen in animated series The Clone Wars and also appeared in “The Padawan Path”, an episode of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, a series of animated shorts.

We also saw a big tree in the first teaser trailer for The Last Jedi, and while we don’t know for sure what this tree is, it seems likely that it’s a Force tree. If it is, it could have very exciting ramifications for the franchise.

The Last Jedi Tree
That tree, as seen in the Last Jedi teaser.

We’ll have to wait until the film is released on December 14 in the UK and December 15 in the US before finding out how — and if — Force trees feed into The Last Jedi for sure!

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.