On Friday, April 12 at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, the first official teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX, titled The Rise of Skywalker, dropped. This comes months after fan speculation of a trailer dropping at various dates at the beginning of the year, as well as following a tight production schedule after J.J. Abrams replaced Colin Trevorrow as director somewhat late in the game. Nonetheless, we finally got a (might I say, epic) trailer at this major Star Wars fan event, following in the footsteps of Episode XIII, The Last Jedi, when its first teaser was released at Star Wars Celebration in 2017.
One thing Star Wars trailers do very well is reveal clips from major climatic scenes, without really saying or telling anything. They don’t mean much out of context other than “another fight scene,” but in the movie they’re everything. Here we’ll go over the major shots from the trailer, what they may mean, and the main takeaways:
Rey. Rey Rey Rey.
The teaser opens with a beautiful shot of the galaxy’s “nobody,” panning down to her wielding a lightsaber. We know the lightsaber she carried in The Last Jedi, last possessed by Luke Skywalker, was destroyed in half during her confrontation with Kylo Ren after the murder of Snoke. At the end of The Last Jedi, we see Rey holding both halves of the lightsaber. Did she mend it back together? Luke Skywalker is also heard as a voiceover. He most likely has a part in IX, and may even be back as a Force ghost. Cut to the first title card.
But before we move on, this marks an interesting parallel: the title cards in this teaser trailer are very similar to the teaser for Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace, symbolically tying the last movie in the saga to the first (according to timeline, of course). This arc demonstrates that IX will not only be the end of a trilogy, but the end of the Skywalker story (as director J.J. Abrams has mentioned himself).
The Phantom Menace trailer, for reference:
Now, cue Kylo Ren. We see him racing across the desert towards Rey in his TIE silencer. In something resembling some kind of battle, or friendly encounter, Rey ignites her lightsaber and prepares for action. As Kylo inches closer and closer, we witness something only the gods are capable of. In a scene that sends chills down your spine and back up again, Rey leaps up and backwards over the TIE silencer, wielding her lightsaber in an epic motion.
Kylo’s fight scene.
While we only get a mere 3-second slow-motion glimpse of a fight scene bound to be powerful in IX, there’s a lot that could be happening here. Who is he fighting? Sure, it could be the Resistance, but some fan theories have made them out to possibly be the Knights of Ren. Who knows, this theory is (sort of) far out there but it’s interesting to consider something other than what is expected. It would definitely be a turn of events; why would he fight his own? Kylo vs. the Knights of Ren would definitely bring his character arc to the forefront of not only IX, but the entire trilogy.
Not sure what’s happening here (probably just a fix of Kylo’s helmet) but those definitely aren’t his hands.
Lando’s back, baby.
Talking about pulling at heartstrings… Lando’s back and here to reclaim the ship that was once his so long ago. Not only do we get the notorious Billy Dee Williams reprising his role, but seeing Lando fly the Millenium Falcon will hopefully bring some closure to the fans still grieving Han’s death from Episode VII.
Our princess.
J.J. Abrams has stated that Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) will be in Episode IX, and her likeness will not be CGI’d. Rather, clips and unused scenes from VII and VIII will be weaved into the narrative. It seems like this shot of Leia and Rey was taken and edited from the end of Episode VII-The Force Awakens, when the two hug goodbye. J.J. said the way the clips of Leia from VII and VIII fell into Episode IX couldn’t have been more perfect; it’ll be interesting to see how the editing teams pull this off. I have no doubt it’ll be remarkable- just seeing a glimpse of Princess Leia in this trailer made my heart melt.
A Death Star in ruins.
At the end of the trailer, Rey and her comrades (Chewie, BB-8, D-O, C-3PO, Poe, and Finn… united at last!) seem to be overlooking the Death Star in ruins. Then, cut to black. That menacing laugh is none other than that of Emperor Palpatine. His cameo in the trailer not only means the character will be back in Episode IX, once again bridging the arc of the Skywalker story, but the character’s actor, Ian McDiarmid, was on stage at Star Wars Celebration 2019 to introduce the trailer’s encore. This, of course, gives rise to so many questions. One obviously being, what will Palpatine’s role in Episode IX be? Has he been controlling the dark side this entire time? Does he have any relation to Snoke; is Snoke a product of Palpatine? Does he have a relation to Rey? The questions are many and, likewise, the fan theories.
Now, we wait.
This trailer exudes what J.J. Abrams does best: nostalgia and mystery. Nostalgia in the sense that he’s bringing due justice to the end of the Skywalker story, and uniting characters from previous movies that fans hold in their hearts. Mystery in the sense that we know there’s a lot going on, and we know there’s so much room for more to happen, but we’re only given a peek of what’s possible. J.J. is the master of tugging at our heartstrings and leaving us with so many questions.
See the trailer for the first or 7634th time:
Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker debuts in theaters December 20, 2019.
Nadia Jurkovich is the treasurer of CUFP and a sophomore in Columbia Engineering.