It’s here! After months of speculating, the second trailer for the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has arrived and it has the fans talking.
Following on from divisive Last Jedi, director J.J. Abrams is looking to bring all the fans home, with a trailer geared to fans of all three Star Wars trilogies. Abrams is aiming to bring this 9 film saga to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion, and from the limited footage we have seen so far, it looks like he might just live up to that.
The Sunset on Tatooine
It is where our journey began over 40 years ago, Luke looking into the sunset, awaiting his upcoming journey. This iconic shot has become a staple of pop-culture, with it being the intimate image of the beginning of the hero’s journey.
Montage of the Original Trilogy
It’s all familiar stuff that we’ve grown up with, showcasing the most iconic moments from the Star Wars franchise. The first time we met our favourite characters, along with the destruction of the Death Star. We also see other minor characters from the Trilogy such as, Yoda, the iconic Boba Fett and Lando, who is set to play a major role in the Rise of Skywalker.
Montage of the Prequel Trilogy
It’s the trilogy everyone loves to hate. Disney has often been naïve in acknowledging the prequels for some time now. Despite this, Abrams is a fan of the prequels, with some dedication to the prequels in the trailer. In this montage, we see some of the iconic moments from the trilogy, including Darth Maul’s double ended lightsabre, young Obi-Wan and Qui Gon Jin. Strange choices, but could they potentially play a role in The Rise of Skywalker?
Montage of The Sequel Trilogy
In the final montage of trilogies, we see a montage of the sequel trilogy. This montage showcases the highlights of these films, along with showing off the characters we have grown to love. This helps lead into the new footage.
Another Sand Planet? Again?
In the first part of the new footage for the Rise of Skywalker, we see Po, Chewie, Finn and Rey on a sand planet. In this shot, the group are looking off into the distance to colourful creatures that seem to be celebrating. What could they be celebrating? Festivities? The fall of the First Order? Only time will tell what this means, but all we know is that this isn’t on Tatooine or Jakku. This unnamed planet is covered in mystery and is sure to keep us speculating.
All hail Princess Leia
During the trailer, we see our first glimpse as Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. This will be Fisher’s last acting role, following her tragic death in 2016. Fisher tragically passed away before production began on The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams has decided to not digitally recreate her face for the film, something that they did in Rogue One, instead he used unseen footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here’s hoping we get a beautiful send off to Fisher and her iconic character.
Rise of Star Destroyers?
Holy guacamole that’s a lot of Star Destroyers. In this shot we see hundreds of Star Destroyers move in unison through a blue and black background. This could be plenty of different things. The system in the background looks extremely familiar to that of the Kessel Run that appeared in Solo. Could we possibly see The Millenium Falcon tackle that run without Han? This could also be a searching mission for the First Order. With the Emperor’s laugh being faintly heard in the background, perhaps he could be calling the ships over for a mission.
Dark 3-PO
Here comes trouble. After years of constantly being the butt of every joke, 3PO has had enough. C-3PO is seen sporting red eyes in this new trailer. This is something we haven’t seen in the films yet, but something we’ve seen in the comics. This could potentially be C-3PO’s evil counterpart, C-3PX. C-3PX is a droid assassin that served Dark Maul during the era of the prequels. This could make his first appearance in the films. Although, could also be a fake out that is aimed to sell toys.
The First Order’s new toy?
The First Order throughout the Sequel trilogy has had an obsession of replicating models that the Empire had, decades before it. In The Force Awakens, we saw Star Killer Base. This base had a planet destroying machine built into it, much similar to that of the Death Star. This shot from the Rise of Skywalker shows us a similar death laser firing on an unnamed planet. Could this be a new scene, or a flashback from The Force Awakens?
Dark Rey?
Now this is the moment that everyone has been talking about. The last shot of the trailer is Rey in a dark robe with a folded lightsabre. This sabre design is something we are yet to see in Star Wars. The closest model to this Sabre was Maul’s double ended sabre in the prequels. The question we have is: what does this shot mean? Rey has been the central hero of the new trilogy, aiming to do good throughout. Rey’s arc throughout The Last Jedi was to bring Kylo back and be the best Jedi she could be. So why would she now be tempted by the dark? This could be an obstacle that she has to overcome, similar to Luke fighting another version of himself in The Empire Strikes Back. This other version could potentially be an evil clone of her.
Another possibility is that this could be a force vision or her being tempted to the dark side. One final theory is that Rey could be possessed by the Emperor. The first trailer saw Rey walk towards the second Death Star where The Emperor died. There is a possibility that Rey could walk over to the Death Star and get possessed by the Emperor. Only one thing is sure, this will keep us wondering in anticipation until the release of The Rise of Skywalker.
The Rise of Skywalker releases on the 20th of December.
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