On Friday, a world premiere trailer at the annual Star Wars Celebration event confirmed the name of the final film in the “Skywalker Saga.” Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the official name for Episode IX, which is slated to land in theaters “this Christmas.”
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We have a title!
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The trailer opens with Rey jumping acrobatically into the path of an apparent First Order craft.
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A Luke Skywalker voiceover tells Rey upon the trailer’s intro: “A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight.”
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Confirmation of Carrie Fisher’s appearance in The Rise of Skywalker.
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This is the first image of Billy Dee Williams returning to the role of Lando Calrissian for Episode IX.
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And here’s Lando piloting the Millennium Falcon for the first time in a while.
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The primary new-trilogy cast…
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…faces an all-too-familiar sight. Also, uh, what’s in Rey’s hand there?
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Hmm. Those are some very furry hands touching up what appears to be an evil helmet.
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Kylo Ren tries out some new WWE maneuvers.
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Here’s your new phone or desktop backdrop image.
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Pretty solid Christian-rock album cover here.
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“What’s that on your face, Kylo Ren?” “Blood.” “Where’s it from?” “Other people’s faces.” (This is not actual dialogue.)
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John Boyega’s new Rise of Skywalker getup as Finn.
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Looking tasty as ever, Mr. Isaac.
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“That’s me with a stick,” Daisey Ridley says about this new photo of her in The Rise of Skywalker.
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Laughs between friends on The Rise of Skywalker.
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Kelly Marie Tran returns in The Rise of Skywalker, clearly awake from the previous film’s coma.
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One of the new creatures, named Klad, is “a friend of the resistance,” introduced to fans at Friday’s Star Wars Celebration panel.
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New robot buddy Dio, shown off at the event.
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And here’s Dio with BB-8 in the new trailer. Dio’s head includes a side pivot, so that it can do things like glance around corners.
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Concept art for the film’s new robot friend.
After hearing narration from Luke Skywalker (“A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight”), the trailer focuses largely on dramatic action sequences. We see a few Millennium Falcon flights and some desert-speeder combat before this teaser reveals at least one scene starring Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. (We already knew Fisher would appear in the film by way of footage shot before her 2016 death.) This new footage concludes with the primary new-trilogy cast staring at the landed wreckage of a Death Star.
The trailer appeared at the end of an hour-long event hosted by CBS’ Stephen Colbert; other reveals included world-premiere photos of various cast members in the film and the live-action unveiling of BB-8’s new robotic buddy, a one-wheeled junk-heap character named Dio.
In addition to hints gleaned from today’s world premiere trailer, “it’s been a little while” since the events of The Last Jedi, actor Daisy Ridley told the Star Wars Celebration crowd during the panel presentation. She said that “the lightsaber that Rey inherited from Luke lives.” She did not, on the other hand, explain which “Skywalker” the film’s newly revealed title might be referring to.
The Rise of Skywalker‘s trailer ended with actor Ian McDiarmid appearing on the stage and telling the audience, “roll it again,” which followed the sound of Emperor Palpatine’s laughter at the trailer’s close. Hence, we certainly expect Palpatine to figure into the plot, as will a cast composed of familiar faces (Billy Dee Williams, Fisher) and new ones.
Listing image by Lucasfilm
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