Rian Johnson's
Star Wars: The Last Jedi was quite the departure from J.J. Abrams'
The Force Awakens; the mystery surrounding Rey's parents was quickly thrown out, while Supreme Leader Snoke's "true" identify was never revealed after he was killed in short order by Kylo Ren.
Now, Abrams is returning to the
Star Wars franchise for the finale of the Skywalker Saga with
The Rise of Skywalker, but it doesn't sound like the controversial events of
The Last Jedi won't negatively impact Abrams' plans.
"The story that we started to conceive when we did The Force Awakens, it was allowed to continue," Abrams revealed during a recent interview.
"Episode VIII didn't really derail anything that we were thinking about."
So, while it doesn't necessarily sound like he'll ignore what's come before, the answers to questions that Johnson chose to gloss over could be coming our way, and it wouldn't be all that surprising if that reveal about Rey's parents is retconned into something a little more satisfying.
What do you guys think?
Hit the "View List" button to check out the
biggest reveals from the latest trailer for the movie!
Friends Reunited
Rian Johnson split the heroes up in
The Last Jedi (Rey and Poe Dameron didn't even meet until pretty much the final scene), but J.J. Abrams is bringing them back together for this adventure.
That's something fans will definitely appreciate, but there is a noteworthy omission here: R2-D2!
Now, it could just be that he and BB-8 are hidden in the background somewhere, but we've seen very little of him in
The Rise of Skywalker up until now and there could be a reason for that.
The Resistance Fleet
The Resistance was left reeling after The First Order's attack in
The Last Jedi, but it appears as if they've managed to regroup...with some classic ships!
As you can see, we have A-Wings, B-Wings, X-Wings, and Y-Wings, and even what appear to be some CR-90 Corvettes, the same class of ship as the Tantive IV which opened
A New Hope. Interestingly, there's even a YT Freighter that isn't the Millennium Falcon, so it appears as if our heroes have been searching high and low in order to create a formidable fleet.
The Empire's Backup Plan?
These are Imperial Star Destroyers from the original
Star Wars trilogy, and recent novels and video games have revealed that The Emperor had some sort of contingency plan that would be acted on upon his death. The question is, why have these ships been kept hidden and who's inside them?
Some fans have noticed that there are red decals on the Star Destroyers, so perhaps these are Palpatine's Sith Troopers? They may have been waiting for the right moment to strike and while we don't know what that is, it's possible that The First Order may just be an offshoot of the
real Empire...
C-3PO Turns To The Dark Side
Or not. C-3PO may appear to have turned evil here, but there's probably a very good explanation for this. In leaked promo art, we've seen the beloved droid wielding Chewbacca's Bowcaster, a sign that he's going to be a little more proactive in
The Rise of Skywalker.
If you've read the
Darth Vader comic book series, you'll know that the assassin protocol droid Triple Zero has red eyes, so this is probably akin to an "instant kill" mode that will allow Threepio to bypass his programming and start taking out some Stormtroopers!
A Powerful New Weapon
The Starkiller Base may have been destroyed in
The Force Awakens, but it seems as if The First Order (or The Emperor) has been hard at work constructing a new super weapon.
This looks a lot like the sort of blast you might expect to come from the Death Star, but don't be surprised if these powerful looking, possibly Kyber-based blasts are actually emanating from one of those Star Destroyers. If that's the case, the Resistance will find themselves outgunned in a big way.
Rey's Training
Rey appears to be training in the same jungle environment where Leia could be seen earlier in the trailer, and she's using a training remote similar to the one we saw on the Millennium Falcon in
The Force Awakens which Luke used way back in A New Hope.
She's clearly rebuilt the lightsaber which was destroyed in
The Last Jedi, and this is probably just an establishing sequence of some sort.
The Emperor's Narration
Yes, that is indeed The Emperor's voice you hear in this trailer, and he says, "Your journey...nears its end."
The question is, whose journey is he referring to? That's clearly newly recorded dialogue, and while it might have been used solely for this trailer, it's interesting to wonder how those comments might factor into the plot. Is he talking to Kylo Ren or Rey? We'll just have to wait and see...
An Epic Lightsaber Duel
Chances are that this is a piece of the Death Star that Kylo Ren and Rey are battling on, as we saw in the first trailer that the remains of the space station had crashed into the ocean on this mysterious alien planet. This looks like an incredible battle and is a nice contrast to the fiery final fight in
Revenge of the Sith.
There are a lot of conflicting theories about how the relationship between these two will play out in
The Rise of Skywalker, but this most definitely doesn't look like Ren is training his "apprentice."
Rey Turns To The Dark Side?
The obvious explanation to this moment in the trailer is that this is just a Force Vision, or possibly even just a glimpse at what might have been had Rey made the decision to join Kylo Ren.
But isn't that just a tad too obvious? After all, fans are going to be annoyed if it's blatant misdirection, and it's entirely possible that Rey is turned (albeit briefly) or that she pretends to be in order to take down The Emperor. Interestingly, lightsabers like this were used by the Jedi Temple Guards in
The Clone Wars, and her blades are as unstable as Kylo's.
Darth Vader's breathing can also be heard at this point, so make of that what you will...