Star Wars: Luke Skywalker thinks midi-chlorians are dumb, too

In the beginning, there was the Force, an all-powerful matrix of energy that suffused all living things. Introduced in 1977’s Star Wars, fans loved the idea of the Force in part because the particulars were kept vague. In theory, anyone could use the Force, from Luke to Leia to Chewie to you. It was a democratizing sort of mystical energy.

Then came the Star Wars prequels, starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999. In that movie, Star Wars creator George Lucas explored the idea that one’s ability to use the Force was tied to how many midi-chlorians — microscopic beings that exist in all living things — they had in their body. Anakin Skywalker was said to have more midi-chlorians than any Jedi bar Yoda, which is why Jedi like Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were so taken with his potential. Apparently Darth Sidious’ master Darth Plagueis could manipulate midi-chlorians to create and preserve life, and so on.

Fans didn’t like the way midi-chlorians boiled down the idea of the Force to something you’d learn about in a middle school science class, or watch on Dragon Ball Z: what’s your power level? What’s your midi-chlorian count? It does take some of the magic and mystery out of the equation.

After the prequels, future Star Wars movies and shows have pretty much avoided talking about midi-chlorians. They weren’t mentioned once in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, nor on The Mandalorian on Disney+. Given how unpopular the idea is, this is probably for the best.

And in an official Star Wars book published last year by Insight Editions, Disney went a little further and threw some shade at the whole idea. Here’s an excerpt from Star Wars: The Secrets of the Jedi, where an older Luke Skywalker looks back on the history of the Jedi order and the weird stuff they used to believe about the Force:

"During the time of the Galactic Republic, the Jedi used science to explain why some of us feel the Force more strongly than others. Prospective younglings were tested by the Jedi Order for midi-chlorians – microscopic life-forms that reside in all living cells and impart the will of the Force to their hosts. Those with a higher number of midi-chlorians were able to hear the will of the Force more clearly than others. Personally, I’ve never been one to worry about how exactly the Force whispers to me. All that matters to me is that it still does."

“I’ve never been one to worry about how exactly the Force whispers to me. All that matters to me is that it still does.” So that’s not exactly a retcon that gets rid of the idea of midi-chlorians entirely, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing crop up in movies at any time soon, either.

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h/t Screen Rant