Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker looks to be the long-awaited finale to a 9-movie saga that was created by George Lucas 42 years ago. The final trailer to the upcoming trilogy closer pays homage to that fact, as well as to the legacy that this franchise has built in all its years.
Here’s a breakdown of ten details from the Final Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer.
POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING! FOR A MOVIE THAT HASN’T COME OUT YET.
1. The new Big Three get cool lines
As we open to a forest planet where Rey seems to be deflecting a blast from the same kind of training droid that Obi-Wan used on Luke in A New Hope (1977), we’re greeted with a voice over by Finn.
“It’s an instinctive feeling. The force brought us together.“ – a line that hints towards another one later in the trailer. More than that in a bit.
A few shots later, we’re treated to what seems like to be a Resistance meeting with the likes of Poe Dameron, Lando Calrissian as played by Billy Dee Williams, and not-Admiral Ackbar. (Ackbar died in the last movie.)
Over this scene and the ones that follow, Poe says “We’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them.” During this piece of dialogue, we catch shots of Rose Tico and Chewbacca, Finn, and Poe beside the pilot’s nth X-Wing of the franchise.
Since the Resistance’s near eradication in The Last Jedi (2017), they’ve likely been really low on manpower and ships. Some time has passed since and Poe looks to be taking a more active leadership role in this film. They had some time to gather up more fighters and more ships but it’s clearly not enough.
Followed by an epic shot of a CR-90 Corvette, the very first ship shown in a Star Wars movie, flying overhead the forest plant, Rey gives us this introspective quote: “People keep telling me they know me. No one does.” while we are fed a shot of her atop the Death Star II nearly submerged beneath a vicious tide.
And to her claim, Kylo replies “I do.“
The line that Rey says is a possible reference to the previous film’s reveal that her parents might very well be “filthy junk traders”, nobodies – a plot line that this film could potentially expand on. People come to her, expecting her to be some destined hero – something she thinks she isn’t, something Kylo might know something about.
2. New planets that look like old ones.
The trailer a few seemingly familiar places – planets that would pass off as Jakku, Tatooine, the Forrest Moon of Endor, or Yavin IV. But it’s been confirmed that all the planets we’re gonna get to visit in this movie are all new planets that were likely purposefully made to be reminiscent of those old, iconic, planets.
An icy, glacier-like planet known as Kimiji is one of the planets featured. It’s a clear callback to Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and it’s the home planet of Zorri Bliss, a new smuggler-type character who’s been described as an “old friend” of Poe’s. The planet run almost entirely by smugglers and scoundrels.
3. Palpatine’s Sith Throne
Calling it “Palpatine’s Sith Throne”… There’s a papal throne joke in there somewhere that I just can’t wrap my head around.
Anyway, we get a shot of this wicked awesome, rocky throne that just screams “EVIL!” It’s not entirely clear what this chair has to do with Sheev Palpatine, but his voice over, which plays over this shot, references Finn’s earlier quote in a twisted way.
“Long have I waited and now, your coming together is your undoing.” he says, mirroring Finn’s sentiment that the big three’s coming together was the miraculous work of the force. But for Sheev, it will be their downfall.
This could refer to the main group, however that doesn’t seem likely. More likely, it refers to Kylo Ren and Rey coming together. The way the former-emperor says it almost tells me he wanted them there together for some reason. Menacing.
It’s unclear, for now, where the throne is exactly. It could possibly be somewhere in the Death Star, in some Sith planet, or it could also be simply a vision shared by Rey and Kylo Ren. We’ll have to wait and see
4. Ships. Ships. Ships.
The two arguably coolest shots of the trailer are the back-to-back shots of the Star Destroyer rising and breaking through what seems to be ice as lightning crackles in the background over Palatine’s menacing speech and the breathtaking shot of the Resistance’s ships soaring into god-knows-what with the Millennium Falcon leading the charge.
Some fans might recognize the light freighter flying on the upper-right-hand corner of the Falcon as the Ghost, the home base of the Specters from Star Wars: Rebels.
5. Is C3PO sacrificing himself?
In the last trailer, we got a glimpse of what the internet has dubbed “Sith-3PO” when we all saw the gold-plated droid with blood red eyes.
Here, we catch a quick scene were the big three plus Zorri walk into C3PO being tampered with, to which Poe says “What’re you going there, 3PO?”
The droid pauses and replies with “Taking one last look, sir… at my friends.” followed by shots of R2D2 and Chewbacca.
Now, I don’t know about you but that there sound like some famous last words of a dying droid to me. He might be sacrificing himself to hack into some First Order mainframe or something like that. Regardless, it seems that The Rise of Skywalker will likely feature the death of C3PO
That line hits home especially well when you consider that it might be meant to resonate with audiences in the way that this film is our one last look at Star Wars as we know it. Sad.
6. The Destiny of a Jedi
Confirming Luke’s (likely final) return as a force ghost, we hear him convey some words of wisdom to Rey (or maybe even to Kylo) as he says, “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi – your destiny.”
This is nice way to address how every protagonist in the Skywalker Saga has had to face and accept a fundamental yet hard-to-swallow truth about themselves. Anakin had to accept that he would never be strong enough to conquer death and save the ones he loves. Luke had to come to grips with his father being Darth Vader and the fear he might be consumed by the dark side himself.
In turn, either Rey, Kylo, or both have to come to accept some truth that they will most likely unearth in this film. What that truth is, I don’t know.
7. Shattered… something?
By the end of the trailer, we’re given this shot of Kylo and Rey hacking and shattering some… thing. Since it’s black, it’s likely either Sith, Imperial, or New Order-ian (?).
There’s a lot of interesting details in this shot. The structure that they destroy is likely something connected to the Emperor in some way, but even knowing that it could still be a dozen different things.
Focus on the location itself. The design doesn’t match the aesthetic that we see in the more modern ships or locations introduced this new trilogy. Despite taking a lot of design inspiration from the original trilogy, most of this trilogy’s designs still have a modern flair to it. This room, however, seems like it doesn’t.
It’s too 70s sci-fi – something out of the original trilogy. It might possibly be the Death Star II, some secret and untouched room. It might also be one of Palpatine’s secret hidden bases that Kylo Ren and Rey stumbled upon – they do find themselves in a remote desert planet in the previous trailer and they seemed to be looking for something. This might be it.
8. The New Order be preppin’ and the Resistance be ridin‘
Speaking of awesome shots in this trailer plentiful of awesome shots, the shot of what looks to be an entire armada of Star Destroyers and TIE fighters rallying is up there in the epic scale.
This looks to be taken from the same scene as one where you can see Naomi Ackie’s character Jannah leading a charge of alien horse-mounted Resistance soldiers across a Star Destroyer while it’s being rained fire upon.
Now that I’ve described it, I’ve only now realize how epic this scene must actually be.
9. Rey vs. BBEG?
One of the last shots of the trailer shows Rey slowly backing up while being confronted by an unknown, silhouetted figure – presumably, the BBEG (Big bad evil guy).
The angle suggests that the thing she’s up against is either above her or is really tall. But I’m wiling to bet that it’s the former since it’s likely Sheev Palpatine, the Emperor, Darth Sidious who’s come to rear his raisin-like face. You can even see a hood there clearly – the same hood that Sidious wears.
Alternatively, this is evil Rey from the last trailer – and I’m all for that.
10. The Final Shot
Not much here in terms of details really. But it’s an interesting shot nonetheless. It’s Rey with Anakin’s repaired lightsaber. She seems like she’s about to go into battle but she in this state of complete calm – almost trance-like.
This just seems like her self-realizing moment when she’s finally accepted, learned, or understood what she needs to in order to discover what she needs to just as she’s about to have her ass handed to her. It’s the final battle, the one that decides the fate of the entire galaxy.
Those were ten details from the final trailer of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a show-stopping finale to one of the most influential film franchises ever – one that will deliver, in and of itself, a compelling epic while still respecting those that came before.
Did I miss anything? What detail did you notice while watching the trailer? Have any speculations of your own? Tell me about them in the comments below and don’t forget to like and share this list to help out the blog.
LAZY BOY POPCORN 