Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 10 Ways It Sets Up Episode IX

5. Poe Dameron As Leader Of The Resistance

Star Wars The Last Jedi Trailer Poe Dameron
Lucasfilm

The Resistance is not in good shape at the end of The Last Jedi.

Its main circle of fighters is reduced to the mere handful of rebels who escape on the Millennium Falcon after the fight on Crait, and with Holdo, Ackbar, and Leia (who won't be in Episode IX due to Carrie Fisher's death) no longer around, the group lacks a definitive leader.

And this leaves the door open for Poe Dameron. His arc in The Last Jedi was about overcoming his brashness and his single-minded approach to battle (blow stuff up), and by the film's end, he's done just that, realising that the Resistance's best chance of survival is to retreat back through the base, rather than fight.

He stepped up, took charge and led his friends to safety, which makes him the perfect candidate to fill the void that will be left by Leia in Episode IX.

He's already shown he possesses all the qualities a leader needs - determination, compassion, rational thinking - and after growing from a trigger-happy flyboy to a level-headed strategist in The Last Jedi, it makes sense for him to take that next big step in Episode IX.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!