Well, it's finally here: the trailer for the final installment of the Skywalker Saga.
And with the trailer we finally get a title: The Rise of Skywalker.
Considering that Luke Skywalker seemed to buy the moisture farm at the end of The Last
Jedi, we can't help but wonder just which Skywalker is about to rise.
We can only guess at what some of the scenes in this trailer might mean.
But rest assured - a lack of actual knowledge never stopped us from speculating wildly about
trailers before.
Crack open your Wookieepedias, and dust off your holocrons - here are the small details
you might've missed in the first trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
After two mainline movies' worth of fans constantly wondering where smooth operator Lando Calrissian,
played by BIlly Dee Williams, might be hiding, the teaser finally confirmed that he'll return
in The Rise of Skywalker.
And he's right back where fans last saw him 36 years ago at the end of Return of the Jedi,
sitting in the pilot's seat of the Millennium Falcon and having a grand old time.
His co-pilot this time out isn't rebel smuggler Nien Nunb - who incidentally is still active
in the Resistance movement.
Instead, it's none other than Chewbacca accompanying Lando on a jump through hyperspace.
Where are they headed?
A very brief shot of a battle scene looks like it may take place in Lando's old stomping
grounds, Cloud City.
"Lando!"
"Lando system?"
"Lando's not a system.
He's a man."
Of course, fans have seen Lando in a movie since Jedi: 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story,
where he was portrayed by Donald Glover instead of Williams.
Interestingly, Williams seems to be wearing the same, or at least a very similar, yellow-and-black
costume as the one Glover wore in the prequel.
Perhaps he's trying to recapture the swashbuckling days of his youth?
Or maybe it's just so newer fans will recognize him.
Arguably the most touching moment in the first teaser for The Rise of Skywalker is the brief
shot of Leia and Rey embracing in a forest-like setting.
A single tear runs down's Rey’s cheek as Luke's voiceover intones, "We'll always be
with you."
While the in-universe context for this heartfelt hug is still unknown, we do know that scenes
featuring the late Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker are actually unused clips from
The Force Awakens.
Much to the relief of Fisher fans worldwide, Lucasfilm announced in July 2018 that her
character would not be controversially resurrected via CGI, like Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin
in 2016's Rogue One.
Instead, Abrams and his team would find a way to work with a number of scenes that had
gone unused from Episode VII, as director J.J. Abrams told the crowd at the Star Wars
Celebration 2019 in Chicago.
"The idea of having a CG character was off the table.
We never even wanted to try.
And the idea of saying, 'Well, what if we could actually write scenes around her?'
So it would be her performance.
She's in the movie."
So while it's still unclear why, exactly, Leia and Rey are sharing this particular moment,
we know that it's not just a tacked-on deleted scene.
Whatever it was that prompted this embrace in the Episode VII script changed the course
of Episode IX's story, one way or another, meaning Fisher had a posthumous influence
on the direction of the Star Wars universe - a fitting tribute to the legendary Leia.
There's one moment in particular that has hyperventilating fans reaching for their inhalers:
the moment where we see Kylo Ren's iconic helmet being carefully pieced back together
by a mysterious - and hairy - figure.
In The Force Awakens, that mask was in many ways the key to who Kylo Ren is - or wanted
to be, at least.
Unlike his grandfather, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren didn't need the mask.
But he chose to wear it as an outward symbol of the person he was willing himself to become.
In The Last Jedi, though, Kylo Ren smashed the mask in a rage.
That too, was symbolic.
His whole character arc in The Last Jedi saw him questioning his decision, and questioning
who he was.
Rey tried to redeem him by tempting him back to the light side, and he wavered.
Some part of him was still Ben Solo.
But in the end, he chose again to embrace the dark side.
So it would only be fitting if he once again donned the mask: he knows who he is now, and
it's not Ben Solo.
It's Kylo Ren, the inheritor of Darth Vader's legacy - and the mask is an outward symbol
of who he's finally chosen to be.
Beyond Rey's prequel-style feat of Force parkour, the biggest money shot in the Rise of Skywalker
teaser is the shot of our next generation heroes paying a visit to the wreckage of a
massive Death Star.
You may be familiar with these.
The question lingering over this shot is: which Death Star is this?
In the series so far, we've seen only two super-weapons of this particular design: one
in the first Star Wars, which was blown up at the Battle of Yavin, and another in Return
of the Jedi, which was blown up with the Emperor on board above the forest moon of Endor.
Recency bias and the Emperor's well-timed cackle in the teaser suggest that this wreckage
is of the second Death Star.
But the surroundings - misty and unforested - look less like Endor, and possibly more
like Yavin IV, where the original Rebels first made their base.
Of course, this being Star Wars, this well could be a third, fourth, or sixty-sixth giant
super-weapon that we never got to see on screen before.
The most important thing is that it looks cool, and in that case - hey, mission accomplished.
Way back at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope, the closing scene was Princess Leia awarding
medals to Han and Luke.
We never found out the significance of those medals or what they represent - outside of
being given for "excellence in Death Star destruction."
And we never saw them ever again, until the teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
At about the 1:33 mark, we see a pair of older-looking hands cradling one of the medals that belonged
to Luke and Han.
While we can't see whose hands they are, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that they
might belong to General Leia.
We also can't know if this is Luke or Han's medal, though either one would make a potent
memento for Leia to be holding during the Skywalker Saga's epic conclusion.
But let's take an educated guess: with all the footage we see of a desert locale, the
voiceover provided by Mark Hamil, and the title "The Rise of Skywalker," there's a good
chance that Luke's medal might play an instrumental part in whatever Skywalker will be rising
by the end of this film.
At the very end of the trailer, audiences were treated to one final tease before the
title.
The screen cuts to black, and an ominous laugh plays over the darkness.
(laughing)
Long-time fans might have recognized that cackle as one that sounds eerily similar to
Emperor Palpatine's.
How?
Okay, stop us if you've heard this one: A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Palpatine
fell down a big hole and blew up.
The end.
That seems like a pretty serious injury to come back from.
But as multiple films have proven, nobody in Star Wars is ever truly dead, if the narrative
calls for it.
If that is in fact Palpatine's laugh - and actor Ian McDiarmid's appearance at Star Wars
Celebration just after the trailer's debut seems to indicate that it is - there are a
few possibilities for what it could mean for Episode IX.
First, he's back!
With Snoke out of the picture, the upcoming film will need a big baddie to raise the stakes.
But we also have Kylo Ren seemingly stepping into that role, so another possibility is
that the laugh comes from an old hologram of Palpatine.
As the 2015 comic Shattered Empire showed, the guy wasn't above giving orders after his
death via holograms.
Maybe Rey and the gang discover an old recording in that beat-up Death Star.
Or, hey - it could be a big ol' misdirect.
We'll have to wait to find out.
The first minute or so of the trailer shows Rey going it alone against what seems to be
Kylo Ren's Tie Interceptor.
While the epic-looking action scene is tense and exciting enough, what's really interesting
is the setting - Rey is in the desert, and that might mean some big, big things.
In fact, several scenes in the trailer seem to take place in a rocky, desert-like setting
- like the one featuring Finn and Poe on a rocky outcropping, and the explosive speeder
chase that has strong echoes of Return of the Jedi.
Unless you're new to this whole Star Wars thing, you may know that our heroes have made
quite a few trips to the desert - both in the movies, and in the TV shows.
We've seen the twin-sunned Tatooine several times throughout both the prequel trilogy
as well as the original trilogy, while The Force Awakens switched things up by introducing
us to Rey on Jakku.
Meanwhile, Star Wars Rebels, which details the events before A New Hope, spends a lot
of time on the rocky, sandy planet of Lothal.
So where do these new scenes take place?
Again, it's impossible to say for now, but let's follow the several Skywalker clues and
guess that it's one last trip back to Tatooine - the planet where this whole Star Wars mess
started - before we close the book on this pesky family for good.
Not much is known about the latest droid to appear in the Star Wars universe - and, soon
enough, on Christmas 2019 shopping lists.
But we do know that this unicycle with a megaphone for a head is named D.O., as confirmed by
The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams at the Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago.
Introduced during the panel as BB-8's "new friend," D.O. was met with cheers and plenty
of "Awwws" as he appeared at the feet of the panelists.
As for D.O.'s appearance in the teaser trailer, he's confined to just two shots.
He first pops up tilting his head adorably alongside BB-8, and then once more with the
core group of resistance heroes on what could be Endor.
D.O.'s origin is unclear, but what is clear is that he's going to make a lot of children
happy - and likely upset Star Wars diehards who don't care for the cuter side of the galaxy
far, far away.
Movie teasers tend to do exactly what they say on the tin, offering up fleeting images
and scarce hints over real substance.
The real takeaway from the Episode IX teaser isn't the footage.
It's the movie's title, The Rise of Skywalker - a kind of off-the-wall choice.
In practice, the title signals a hard commitment to referencing the nine Star Wars episodes
as the "Skywalker Saga" - a name we won't know the full significance of until the series
is all wrapped up.
For years, the name Skywalker has referred to just Anakin and Luke, though if you ask
Yoda, Leia can get thrown in there too.
"That boy is our last hope."
"No - there is another."
But the Rise of Skywalker title feels like it elevates the name above and beyond reference
to one mere family.
At the end of The Last Jedi, both Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Order are effectively dead.
Rey, a powerful Force wielder, is left with the option to revive the Jedi - or replace
them.
Perhaps Skywalker isn't a name anymore, but rather a title for a new kind of warrior monk.
If that's the case, then Episode IX follows naming conventions set by the previous two
trilogies - Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi, and now, The Rise of Skywalker.
It's an idea that has a chance of sounding silly if the movie comes out and doesn't go
with it.
But for now, right after the trailer's dropped?
Absent any other information, it feels like a theory we can get behind.
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