Set aside your weekend plans, because the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer just dropped at Star Wars Celebration 2019, and it's time to pore over every last frame and hypothesize what it all means for the grand finale of this legendary sci-fi saga. "We've passed on all we know," says Luke Skywalker in the opening narration, referring to Rey. "A thousand generations live in you now. But this is your fight." Between the short teaser trailer and everything we learned at the Star Wars 9 panel, there's a ton of stuff to take in - so we've scrubbed through the trailer multiple times to call out every last detail we know so far. With that, let's get to analyzing our first glimpse of Star Wars Episode 9.
Is Rey on Tatooine?
In the teaser's opening scene, Rey is engaged in a fierce duel with a full-on TIE Fighter, likely being piloted by the vindictive Kylo Ren. The fight's clearly taking place on a desert planet - which instantly makes most Star Wars fans think of Tatooine, where Luke Skywalker grew up on a moisture farm and Obi-Wan Kenobi watched over him from afar. Given Episode 9's title, it would make sense to bring everything back to where Luke's story first started, but we still don't know for sure - the cloudy day is making it impossible to see Tatooine's iconic twin suns. Perhaps this is Jakku, where we first met Rey, and she's making a return to her home planet.
Luke's old lightsaber is back in working order
It seems like Luke's first lightsaber, with its blue crystal that came to be synonymous with the Jedi, is Rey's trusty weapon once more. She learned to master it during her training with Luke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but it seemingly exploded during her standoff with Kylo Ren in Snoke's throne room. We're not sure how Rey put her inherited lightsaber back together, but it's clearly ready to do some damage in The Rise of Skywalker.
Kylo Ren is piloting a new TIE Fighter
Just before the teaser trailer cuts away from Rey's acrobatic flip over the incoming TIE Fighter Interceptor, you can get a glimpse of the cockpit, which resembles the orb design of the classic TIE Fighter but with red trim, combined with the pointed wings of the ship Kylo pilots in The Last Jedi. It's definitely Kylo Ren in there, as the close-up of the gloves reveal them to be part of Kylo's trademark costume. Perhaps this is a refitted TIE Fighter Interceptor of Kylo's own design, maybe in an effort to further emulate Darth Vader.
We'll visit a wintery world at some point
It's tricky to tell which planet the trailer cuts to next, as its a night scene during a snowstorm, with a ship flying towards a city in the mountains. There are plenty of ice planets in the Star Wars universe, and it could be one we've never seen before; my only guess at this point is that it's not Hoth, which isn't known for its treacherous mountain passes.
Kylo Ren can still fight without his mask...
Kylo shattered his signature mask in The Last Jedi after being belittled by Snoke, and we spent the rest of the movie getting a closer look at his face while he communicates telepathically with Rey. In a brief clip of a forest fight scene, we see Kylo putting a beatdown on some poor enemy of The First Order while stormtroopers push the frontline.
...but Kylo's mask has been reassembled
Thank goodness for whichever First Order janitor saw fit to clean up and keep the scraps of Kylo's mask that he left smouldering in an elevator, because it seems he wants the mask back. We see some really creepy, almost furry-looking hands welding the bits of mask together, creating ominous red cracks all across the imposing helmet. You just know Kylo's going to put on his reclaimed helmet for the final showdown.
Finn and Poe are buddying up again
Throughout the new Star Wars films, Finn and Poe have been at the center of some intense situations, and became fast friends through their shared circumstances. It looks like Finn and Poe are on the same desert planet as Rey, hiding out somewhere else, and Finn could be keeping Rey's signature staff safe for her while she goes around swinging her lightsaber.
Meet the new cute droid in town, D-0
Just when you thought BB-8 was the most adorable a droid could get, the one-wheeled D-0 rolls into town. The two droids will be working together (and they've already got the synchronized head-tilt down pat), though D-0's function remains to be seen, as it looks like a much older model of droid (no offense).
Lando Calrissian is back
Chewbacca's piloted the Millenium Falcon by himself for long enough following Han Solo's murder in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so a familiar friend is joining him at the helm. Billy Dee Williams is back as Lando Calrissian, and it looks like he's having a blast as the Millenium Falcon hyperdrive spins up for a boost into light speed.
The First Order soldiers have jetpacks now
We cut back to a chase scene on that same desert planet, with Finn, Poe, and another soon-to-be-named character being chased by stormtroopers in hot pursuit by land and air. Along with troopers hot on our heroes' tail via landspeeders, we catch a brief, very blurry glimpse of two grunts boosting through a plume of sand with their jetpacks. Could they be based on the Fett family's fan-favorite jetpacks?
C-3PO returns
C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, is also traveling with the gang on the desert island, and is most likely hollering for dear life during this chase scene. The golden droid will serve as a helpful interpreter for the crew, and will no doubt scold BB-8 and D-0 for any tomfoolery.
Whose ship is crash-landing?
The way the trailer is cut together makes it look like Finn, Poe, and C-3PO's cruiser somehow got shot down, but upon closer inspection, this is actually a clip from a different scene. The ship's design looks like the one that was flying down to the ice planet from before, though in a not-so-wintery scene. Hopefully nobody dies in the crash, and if they do, it's someone from The First Order.
Remembering the Medal of Bravery
Next up, we get a glimpse of a Medal of Bravery, which Princess Leia awarded to Luke and Han at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope. It could be that Leia's awarding a new Medal of Bravery to Rey, or that she found the keepsake among Luke's (or Han's) possessions.
Leia Organa will be played by Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher is posthumously reprising her role as Princess Leia thanks to unused footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. "The idea of having a CG character was off the table; we never even want to try," Abrams said during the Star Wars Celebration 2019 panel. "And the idea of saying 'Well, what if we could actually write scenes around her? So it would be her performance, she's in the movie.'" Here, she and Rey share a tender embrace as Rey sheds a tear, most likely at their having to say goodbye.
Our heroes, united
Just in case it wasn't already clear, the teaser trailer wraps up with a shot of our heroes who we'll follow throughout the galaxy. From left to right, we've got Chewbacca, BB-8, D-0, C-3PO, Rey, Poe, and Finn all in awe of something in the distance. Turns out, it's...
A giant chunk of the Death Star still remains
You've got to hand it to the Empire's engineers - the Death Star sure is resilient. After it was blown to smithereens in A New Hope, a new battle station of the same design was put together in Return of the Jedi - and now, a chunk of it has been located in an ocean on an unknown planet. This is where the teaser drops a bombshell on us: Emperor Palpatine's spirit lives on, as he evilly cackles in the background. Ian McDiarmid's surprise appearance at the panel heavily implies that he'll be reprising his role of Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker, as it seems the forces of good - and evil - never truly die.
The title card is blue this time around
This is the smallest of details, but when we get the title card revealing Episode 9's full name, Star Wars is written in blue. As a refresher, The Force Awakens showed Star Wars in the classic yellow, The Last Jedi wrote it in red, and now The Rise of Skywalker shows it in a blue not unlike Luke's lightsaber, and the classic "A long time ago..." intro text.
Make sure you read up on more of the new Star Wars movies on the way.
