While some details about “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” have been unveiled over the last few months in recent trailers, the greatest secrets of ‘Episode IX’ are being kept closer to Lucasfilm’s chest than Lando Calrissian’s winning Sabacc hand.
How will the saga of the most famous Jedi family end while simultaneously witnessing the rise? Is any part of the second Death Star wreckage *gasp* armed and fully operational? Will Rey actually turn to the Dark Side? Or was her cloaked and double-ended lightsabered visage merely a Jedi fever dream? Well, co-writer/director J.J. Abrams insists it’s all truly coming to an end. “We’re not screwing around,” he recently told EW. Thankfully, with less than two months before the film’s release, we now have the final trailer to parse and obsess over.
The self-sacrifice of Luke Skywalker allowed The Resistance to escape the clutches of The First Order in Rian Johnson’s divisive ”Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and before that, the saga’s big bad, Emperor Palpatine was propelled to his presumed death by his former apprentice. But he’s clearly back, as teased in the last trailer so maybe Mark Hamill and Ian McDiarmid will face off as Force Ghosts or something much darker? We’re here for it.
So far, this trilogy has made much of Rey’s parentage, only for it to be disclosed in ‘Episode VIII’ that they were nothing more than drunken junk traders. Was this Kylo Ren simply “tooling” with Rey? Or is she the first to develop The Force without Jedi lineage or simply being born of Midichlorians? Is Rey the titular Skywalker on the rise? Is it Kylo Ren? Or will ‘Skywalker’ represent something else entirely?
Then there’s clearly the idea of redemption for Kylo Ren, that has to be addressed in some way, but can they make it different from Vader’s end at “Return of The Jedi,” but still in a meaningful and satisfying way?
After over 40 years of storytelling spanning several generations, we’re sure the final “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” trailer will answer all of our burning questions, leaving us well and truly sated. Right? Poodoo! Returning stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaacs and Adam Driver are joined by ‘Star Wars’ OGs Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill, Ian McDiarmid and Anthony Daniels as well as archive footage of the late, great Carrie Fisher. Newbs Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, and Richard E. Grant also swell the ranks. By the way, Dennis Lawson, who played ace Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles is rumored to return as well, after turning down J.J. Abrams on the ‘Force Awakens.’ Fingers crossed for diehards.
The final chapter of the ‘Skywalker’ saga drops on December 20. Watch the final trailer below, presumably several times and savor every frame.