Star Wars Releases Trailer for Episode 9
Apr 15, 2019
The Star Wars community has been in a divide for the past two years since the release of 2017’s “The Last Jedi.” Many enjoy it and many hate it for various reasons. However, the one thing that Star Wars fans come together for is the convention known as Star Wars Celebration. The convention held yesterday its Episode 9 panel, where they released the first official trailer and revealed its title “The Rise Of Skywalker.” Let’s first talk about the title.
Daisy Ridley returns as Rey to a galaxy far far away. Ridley and JJ Abrams have stated that this film takes place a few years later after the events of “The Last Jedi.”
At first, I personally was a bit underwhelmed when hearing the title. However, upon watching the trailer and hearing the title more and more, I now found myself warming up to it. It’s a mysterious title that could mean or reference many different things that happen in this film. Is it in reference to Rey? Is Luke going to return? Lots of discussion can be had just from the title alone. Now, let’s talk about the teaser.
The trailer opens with Rey in the middle of this desert with Luke providing voiceover. She pulls out Luke’s lightsaber anticipating the arrival of a tie-fighter. She then begins to run as the tie-fighter chases after her. Instead of turning and fighting, she then proceeds to do a flip; presumably cutting the tie-fighter in half.
Rey and Leia share a heartfelt moment and steal the entire trailer. Leia’s return was done through visuals and deleted dialogue from “The Force Awakens.”
We then cut to various shots of the old and new cast coming together; from the shots of Kylo Ren and Finn to the return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian piloting the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca. The best shot of the entire trailer comes in the form of Princess Leia and Rey sharing a heartfelt moment. With Carrie Fisher, unfortunately, passing away, the film will see this character done through unreleased footage from 2015’s “The Force Awakens.”
The final shot shows Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, C-3PO, BB-8 and the brand-new android all staring at what many are speculating to be a piece of the second Death Star from 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” And another important aspect from the original trilogy and the prequels will be returning to this installment: Emperor Palpatine himself. The trailer ends suspensefully with cutting to black and hearing Palpatine laughing.
The new generation of heroes will be facing the greatest and most powerful evil. That evil was revealed, in the trailer, to be Emperor Palpatine.
Ian McDiarmid, who portrays Palpatine, arrived at Star Wars Celebration after the debut of the trailer to confirm that the laugh we heard was indeed The Emperor. His last and recent appearance as the Emperor was in 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith.”
I personally have enjoyed the two previous installments in this now-established trilogy. “The Force Awakens” was a great revival of the franchise and “The Last Jedi” took many risks and stirred the direction of the franchise into something that I was both satisfied and excited by. One of the greatest things I love seeing in film is seeing a property handled differently than before. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. For me, “The Last Jedi” was a risk that worked great.
And this trailer was a nicely-made teaser that presents just enough to get people excited or optimistic about the conclusion of the Skywalker saga and to the sequel trilogy. We will see what happens when the movie hits theaters later this year on Dec. 20.
Andrew Emde ◊ Apr 18, 2019 at 6:28 pm
Well, in a way, Kylo is a skywalker because Leia was his mom and Leia is Lukes sister and he is a skywalker so Kylo is a skywalker. If you look at wookiepedia and some of the older star wars books or comics, you would know Plagueis created Anakin. Like I said in my other comment, I do think palpatine is doing some old republic stuff. Darth Vitiate, an old republic sith, died and came back multiple times. Maybe palpatine saw a holocron of Vitiate’s and figured out how to make clones of himself so he can come back. I really hope that is the case because that would put Palpatine at the top spot again and it would give the Jedi a worthy opponent. And in one of the comics, Palpatine came back with a clone he made of himself and fought against Luke Skywalker. Luke Defeated him and destroyed all of palpatines clones. So the clones may not be the way palpatine comes back. There have been other sith that come back from the dead in different ways but Vitiates was the most notable. I just really hope Star Wars goes deeper into the old republic. It will cause so many people to have really great conversations about Star Wars. It will cause more people to look more things up about Star wars. All this will cause star wars to never be forgotten.
Terran ◊ Apr 17, 2019 at 12:21 pm
True Star Wars fans did not like the newer movies. The newest movies used a “Mary Sue” instead of actually explaining how she is so powerful. Hopefully this movie will explain how she got so strong with the force… The other two movies were not well made, but the first of the newer ones was definitely more enjoyable than the second. The Palpatine laugh could just be a recording, however in legends he has had clones. If he is still alive, that would be great, and could be explained as “Using Midi-chlorians to keep himself from dying” If he did survive the fall, it is probably because he used the force to be able to pull himself into a safe area, as Darth Maul did. There are theories that Darth Plagueis created Anakin using Midi-chlorians and that is how Anakin had no father and had so many in him. If Darth Sidious (Palpatine) knew how to use Midi-chlorians to stop himself from dying, he may have created Rey, explaining why she would be so powerful. Skywalker could also be used as a name for all the Jedi, or maybe Skywalker is a default name for those created by Midi-chlorians. I personally hope either this is the case, or Kylo is the Skywalker the title is teasing and Rey may die (and he coming back to the light side), because the Star Wars movies have been about the Skywalkers. If anyone has additional theories please don’t feel inclined to concur.
Andrew Emde ◊ Apr 16, 2019 at 1:51 pm
I dont think Rey is a skywalker. I agree that Rey is a kenobi. I think Palpatine is pulling off some old republic things. The star wars fans have been asking for some old republic stuff for quite some time now so I think thats was going to happen. The directors are going to go all out on this movie. I hope they end it off with the sith on top again because people will want the star wars movies even more after that. I cant wait for the movie. Its going to be amazing.
Zach Stansell ◊ Apr 16, 2019 at 9:59 am
Palpatine was definitely an unexpected twist. I think Rey is a Kenobi, but I’m curious to know hat exactly the title is referring to. I don’t think Luke is dead.