Another Star Wars film, another fantastic Vanity Fair cover story to devour with our eyes. The entire piece was written by Lev Grossman with stunning photography captured on the set of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by Annie Leibovitz is worth digesting in full, but I want to cover some tidbits of new information we have from within.

That Desert Planet Is Neither Jakku or Tatooine

The planet we saw Rey standing on in the teaser which had many theorising if it could be Jakku as seen in The Force Awakens or Tatooine last seen in A New Hope is actually a new planet called Pasaana.

Keri Russell Plays Zorri Bliss

Sporting an alien shaped helmet, Keri Russell will play Zorri Bliss, a scoundrel found in the Thieves Quarter of the snow-dusted world of Kijimi. She looks bad-ass, to say the least and the design of this costume is AMAZING.

We currently no nothing more than what’s mentioned though, but her name and also the planet Kijimi are new.

Richard E. Grant Is First Order

Although The Last Jedi saw Kylo Ren take over The First Order, we did have to wonder what would happen to General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) given the twos rocky relationship. The expanded universe material including books and comics have built The First Order to have a much larger and grander military hierarchy than what we’ve seen in the films, so it makes sense we’d see another high-up come in to possibly try and take control of the situation.

Richard E. Grant will play Allegiant General Pryde and in the Vanity Fair photography, his positioning certainly seems like one of authority or at least authority over General Hux.

We Still Don’t Know Much About Jannah

Portrayed by Naomi Ackie in the upcoming film, Jannah is an enigma and a well-guarded secret. The one new piece of information we have is she wields a bow and arrow of some Star Wars variety. And she looks BAD-ASS, I cannot even begin to explain how much I love her in this photo.

Force Connection = Maybe-Bond

Star Wars fanatics everywhere are constantly squirming in anticipation for what could happen between Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley’s Rey in Episode 9. The bond the two forged in The Last Jedi doesn’t seem to be over either.

Although The Last Jedi did seem to portray Rey cutting off the twos bond in the final moments of the film with Rey stepping on to the Falcon and Ren watching her; the door of the Falcon closing signifying their connection being cut-off, however, it seems the connection may return. Adam Driver refers to their connection as their “maybe-bond” which is nothing short of coal to the Reylo fan-base.

If you’re playing a game of ‘connect the promo pics to figure out when Rey and Kylo will bump… whatever’ then take this into account:

• The two Vanity Fair covers can be sat side-by-side to deliver the two characters into the same desert planet

• The newly released picture of them fighting near water certainly looks like one half of the Art Book reveal we got last month.

Death Star Fight Round 2

Just because we don’t have another Death Star in this movie doesn’t mean they won’t be a big fight around a Death Star. As revealed in the teaser back at Star Wars Celebration 2019, it seems like our heroes will be making a trip to one of the Death Stars, presumably the second, which has crashed into a planet and somewhat sunken into water. The picture of Rey and Ren fighting around water, could plausible be taking place right there. The two of them could be standing on top of a section of the debris from the second Death Star, or possibly a ship used to travel into, or under the Death Star, maybe even the Millenium Falcon which was seen travelling underwater in The Art of The Force Awakens which first teased the Death Star being traversed for treasure.

The Knights Of Ren

The mysterious Knights of Ren which were mentioned in The Force Awakens by Supreme Leader Snoke and seen, briefly again, in trailers and the film in Rey’s force-vision are returning for The Rise of Skywalker.

We have a set-photo of the Knights of Ren with J.J himself, although I don’t believe he’s a member just yet. They look similar to the past appearances we’ve seen of the at-least-six member group with an assortment of weapons including giant swords and maces that I’d all assume light up with some added effect and possibly — Sith artifacts.

The article describes the group as “elite fearsome enforcers of Kylo Ren’s dark will”

Luke Flashbacks?

Mark Hamill stands tall and a mystery as ever in the photograph of him as Luke Skywalker standing next to his droid R2-D2 featured in the Vanity Fair article. Burning behind the Jedi is what appears to be burning flames, a forest ablaze even, which is reminiscent of one moment we know of: the moment that changed Luke’s life.

Although we saw briefly in The Last Jedi the downfall of Luke Skywalker as his doubt that leads him to ignite his lightsaber in fear of his pupil and nephew Ben Solo, we didn’t see much of the aftermath. We know that Kylo runs away, destroys the temple and leaves Luke, but we haven’t seen much of Luke’s reaction to his Jedi Temple being burnt and destroyed other than a brief glimpse. Arguably, we don’t need it, we know what this event does to him and what road it leads him down but maybe we will flashback to that scene in full and see the assumed horrible slaughter that Ben Solo, before becoming Kylo Ren committed.

The Rise of Skywalker Moto

That quote from J.J Abrams talking about how he approached Episode 9 is fantastic and it may be one worth pointing to for anyone scared he’s just shooting for a safe finale. Because it seems to me like we’re in for one hell of a ride when the Rise of Skywalker hits hyperspace and lands on our screens in December. I’m pumped. Hell, I’m ecstatic and you can expect more Star Wars: The Rise of The Skywalker content from us leading up to the release, but until then let me know your theories in the comments below.