Star Wars fans, it’s here. The long-awaited trailer for Episode IX is finally here and we have a lot of things to discuss about it.
We’re reintroduced to Rey on a sandy desert planet (we’re guessing Tatooine because that would be cool and no one goes to Jakku, come on) and gathering her thoughts before she activates her (repaired?) lightsaber in order to take on an updated TIE Fighter of some kind head on. Great opening.
Next we see Kylo Ren beating down some poor chap in a forest before seeing someone’s hands (possibly his) repair his broken helmet, followed by a glimpse at Finn and Poe Dameron who – wait a sec, Poe is wearing a Nathan Drake get up and is absolutely killing it. Holy hell, good job Oscar Isaac.
This picture of Poe Dameron is giving me strong Nathan Drake vibes and I am not upset about it pic.twitter.com/3BJqy8PwXI
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) April 12, 2019
Anyway, we see BB-8 and his new droid buddy, and next we get – holy crap it’s OG LANDO! And he’s in the Millennium Falcon with Chewie!
Things then take on a more emotional mood as we see the late Carrie Fisher make an appearance before everything immediately swerves wildly to the right with the main characters seemingly visiting the ruins of the second Death Star.
The trailer ends on the biggest bombshell yet: Emperor Palpatine’s creepy laugh and the reveal of the movie’s title, The Rise of Skywalker.
But enough of me talking about the trailer, here’s the entire thing so watch it before we continue.
Every generation has a legend. Watch the brand-new teaser for Star Wars: #EpisodeIX. pic.twitter.com/fWMS13ekdZ
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 12, 2019
Okay, let’s get into the biggest thing about this trailer: what does The Rise of Skywalker even mean?
Is it referencing Anakin? Luke? Leia? Another Skywalker? Could J.J. actually be retconning Rey’s parentage from The Last Jedi by making her an official Skywalker? Does it have anything to do with Kylo Ren’s blood ties to the family? Is there a secret illegitimate Skywalker floating about the galaxy somewhere? Is it all just a big misdirection?
Unsurprisingly, the movie’s director, J. J. Abrams, kept his cards close to his chest and revealed basically nothing at all. However, he did mention that Episode IX will not only wrap up the sequel trilogy that began with The Force Awakens but it will also conclude the Skywalker story that started eight movies ago in a sort of completing the circle kind of way.
Interesting. It certainly explains why the characters are visiting the ruins of the second Death Star. Perhaps that’s where they find Palpatine’s body or spirit or whatever, hence his surprise return.
So many questions with no answers, as is the norm when it comes to Star Wars I suppose.
Look, the movie comes on in December so it won’t be that long of a wait before we finally get all the answers so until then, let the wild theories and countless Episode IX-related YouTube videos featuring an excessive amount of red circles and arrows commence!