The final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has dropped and I’ve combed through the trailer to spot everything I could for you, so let’s break it down.
The trailer opens with the relaxing noises of what I’m going to be assuming is the Forrest Moon of Endor until I’ve seen the movie and it’s proven otherwise. Rey is seen running down the forest and drops a helmet on the way past the camera. You can see a Seeker Droid flying past as well so Rey is doing some training exercises here. This matches up to the scene in the previous trailer where we see Rey throw her lightsaber through a tree.
As Rey jumps across a gap it transitions to her landing on the scraps of some ship. Best guess could be the inside of the Death Star II, but it could be something else as well.
Finn is looking through some binoculars with a desert landscape in the background so it’s most likely him spying something on Pasaana, the new planet we’ve seen several times now.
The next shot returns to Rey running across a forest section again as Finn is herd in the V.O describing the force and how it brought ‘them together.’
In the next shot, we can see that the Resistance has grown substantially since we saw them nearly destroyed in The Last Jedi. With Poe’s V.O describing how people are willing to follow them, they just have to lead them. You can spot Lando in the inner-circle here sporting his Solo inspired costume as well as Snap Wexley played by Greg Grunberg returning after not appearing in The Last Jedi. It looks like Poe is giving a speech as everyone looks towards him off in the distance.
Rose Tico appears dirty and possibly amongst battle in the next shot with Dominic Monaghan in the background as a Resistance fighter and Lieutenant Connix played by Billy Lourd is next to him.
We see that Poe’s orange X-Wing is returning for the final film.
“People keep telling me they know me… no one does,” says Rey as a close-up of her face shows anger building and the next shot reveals a soaked Kylo Ren approaching her atop the outskirts of the water-sunken Death Star II. He responds in the V.O with “but I do” and looks calm as he approaches.
Things start to get super interesting in the trailer now as we see a giant frozen ice-base of some description with A LOT of tie-fighters approaching it. To the left, you can see a city of some sort, but it looks like there are frozen objects below the city as well, which may play into a moment that’s coming up in the trailer.
A massive throne with spikes growing out from behind it is shown without anyone seated in it. Phil Szostak, the Creative Art manager at Lucasfilm pointed out on Twitter that the design is very much taken from Ralph Macquarie’s first drawings of The Emperor’s throne for The Return of The Jedi.
We hear in V.O Palpatine saying “long have I waited and now, your coming together is your undoing” while we see several different shots. The first is of an Empire-era Star Destroyer breaking out of ice, which could be why the shot before of the ice-base looked like it was filled with objects.
The next reveals a massive amount of Resistance ships gathering with the Millenium Falcon in the lead. Twitter user @AdmiralNick22 did a good breakdown of them all on Twitter and noted there are New Mon Cal Cruisers, Hammerhead Corvette’s a U-Wing and many others, but most interestingly, just off to the right of the Falcon appears to be The Ghost, the ship from Star Wars Rebels. At this stage, it could be being flown by either Hera Syndulla still or her and Kanan Jarrus’s son, Jacen Syndulla.
We see a group moment from inside the cockpit of The Falcon with Rey and Chewbacca flying, a few more seconds of Rey and Kylo fighting atop of the Death Star II again and then a very quick shot of something exploding. I’m not sure what it is, but you can see the other thing in this frame is a Star Destroyer, which I’ll assume is doing the blowing up in this instance.
The next, we see Rey driving a craft of some sort across the rocky waves towards the Death Star II remains in the water. It seems like she’s alone in the craft here.
The middle of the trailer slows things down for a moment so C-3PO can make you tear up a bit. We see Babu Frik, the recently revealed character that was described as “a tiny droid-smith working among the Spice Runners of Kajimi” doing some work on the back of 3PO’s head with Rey looking awfully worried in the background.
BB-8 and D-0 looking worried as well for their droid companion. Poe then asks “what are you doing there, 3PO in a room filled with Rey, Finn and Keri Russell’s character Zorii Bliss. What appears to be a 2-1B Medical Droid can be seen over Finn’s shoulder and in the following shot over 3P0’s right shoulder, you can see a B-1 Battle Droid. So this definitely would appear to be a droid workshop owned by Baby Frik.
3PO then answers Poe with a heartfelt “taking one last look sir, at my friends’.” So whatever 3PO is doing, or being changed to do, is most likely going to be fatal to him, or wipe his memory.
The Rise of Skywalker Final Trailer – ReacTion and Review
Cue the John Williams score next as the classic theme kicks in and we see Poe, Chewie and Finn running at a corridor taking down Storm Troopers with ease, followed by the Leia hugging Rey moment we’ve seen a couple of times now. “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi,” says Luke Skywalker in V.O and we see BB-8 aboard the barrage on Pasaana with Finn, Poe and C3-P0 before we cut to a shot of Lando and Chewbacca flying together.
We then see Janna leading the charge with Finn beside her and a few others behind atop orbaks’ and moving their way along the top of a Star Destroyer. How they got there is a very good question, but horse-like creatures riding into battle on top of a spacecraft is awesome.
Next up we see Rey facing down Kylo Ren inside the throne room of Death Star II. Palpatine’s throne is clearly in the background as well as the iconic window from Return of The Jedi. The place looks like a wreck, but it’s certainly not destroyed enough that Rey wouldn’t be able to find whatever she’s looking for there. It’s worth noting that in this quick shot Rey has her lightsaber ignited by her side, while Kylo does not and also, doesn’t have his helmet on.
Finn is seen running across the top of Death Star II cupping his hands and almost certainly yelling “Rey!” It also appears that Janna is in the background.
My personal pick for the most interesting moment is next as we Kylo with mask-on and Rey with both a lightsaber and dagger in-hand destroy some sort of structure. If you slow it down it does appear like the structure was holding up Vader’s helmet, so this could be Kylo’s new special place for his favourite object. You could take a guess that Rey actually deflects Kylo’s blade and caused the destruction but if you look carefully in the final moments before it fades out he isn’t swinging back into action, if anything, it looks like he’s about to remove his helmet.
We see another angle of the orbak riding team now with a clear view of the Star Destroyer they are on top of as well as what looks like a hundred more off in the distance. You can see X-Wings and Tie-Fighters flying past as well, so the battle is in full-motion.
The final moment of the trailer semi-reveals what we can all safely assume is Palpatine strapped into some sort of mechanical object which is moving him towards Rey who is looking up with some fear. There is cracked-ice looking ground around her which would lead me to believe this is taking place at the ice structure we see earlier in the trailer, but also you can link this back to the original trailer where we see Kylo stepping across the ice with his Tie in the background.
Our last shot is a close-up of Rey in an undetermined location with her lightsaber ignited and we can hear Luke say “the force will be with you” followed by Leia finishing with “always.” Rey’s face looks like she’s actually hearing this at the time and it’s not just out-of-context for the trailer.
Then it finishes. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, coming December 19th and I have my ticket secured for the midnight release. I’m looking forward to reading, listening and watching others comb through the trailer for details and hearing all the crazy theories I can.
Let me know in the comments below anything crazy you’ve spotted or how you feel about the trailer. Make sure you go subscribe to Alderaan Explosion: A Star Wars Podcast as well on whatever podcast service you prefer.
