Fans lost their collective minds at the Disney fest known as D23 in Anaheim this past weekend when footage from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker appeared. Now, it is here for the rest of us who couldn’t make the pilgrimage. Why are people so bonkers about it?
Well, for starters it’s one of those trailers that tease the end of an era, a three-time trilogy, so we get lots of footage from the previous eight films. Then, some of the fresh scenes left mouths agape. First, Kylo Ren and Rey battling their lightsabers on the hull of a crashed ship in the ocean … pretty cool. Then, it happened. Rey, in all black, wielding a double-sided lightsaber, a la Darth Maul.
That’ll get the people talking!
Thing is, we don’t know what that means. Sure, it could mean that she has gone to the dark side. After all, Luke Skywalker did say that she had a power that frightened him. Then again, why would Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams put such a twist in a trailer that was part retrospective and part preview of things to come? I’m thinking he wouldn’t. It was just put in there to get the people talking.
I’d say it worked.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters December 20.