Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer Breakdown and Theories!

It’s almost here.

The final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released just a few days ago, and we are less than two months away from the film itself. If you haven’t seen the most recent trailer, go watch it using the link below. Go ahead, I’ll wait. It’s not a rickroll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qn_spdM5Zg

So I’ll start with a quick breakdown of the trailer, highlighting some important stuff you may have missed, and then I’ll get into my theories.

The trailer begins with Rey training, which is not unexpected. Clearly she has wanted to become a Jedi this entire time. Notice the device she is training with, similar to the one Luke trained with in A New Hope. The helmet seems to resemble those used by the Jedi strike team on Endor in Return of the Jedi, suggesting that perhaps this is Endor, since we already know remains of the second Death Star are on Endor. Rey is also clearly in the forest, and Endor was a “forest moon.”

Immediately after, we do see the Death Star (this is almost certain based on the turret in the middleground and other shots in the same trailer). We hear Finn say “The Force brought us together,” and Poe says, “We’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them.” We see in the shot of the Resistance (while Poe is saying “We’re not alone”) that it has clearly grown a lot larger. This is what Leia was trying to do near the end of The Last Jedi.

Then we see Rose. I was kinda hoping we wouldn’t.

There is a shot of a Corellian ship not unlike that seen at the very beginning of A New Hope, and then we transition to scenes from the wreckage of the Death Star. Rey says, “People keep telling me they know me. No one does,” and then as Kylo Ren emerges through the sea spray, he says “But I do.” This is very likely in a conversation between the two of them, but it’s hard to say what the context would be. Rey has also probably become a sort of celebrity at this point, which is why she would say “People keep telling me they know me.” Then we have a strange scene with a bunch of TIE fighters heading towards what looks like a giant glacier. Notice how it is reflected, but the fighters are not.

Then Palpatine comes in. We see his throne among bursts of lightning, probably connected to the force storm we saw in the D23 footage. It looks a lot like Snoke’s throne from The Force Awakens, but it is definitely Palpatine’s voice that we hear. He says, “Long have I waited. And now, your coming together is your undoing.” He’s clearly talking about Kylo Ren and Rey. But are they “coming together” against him? Or has he been orchestrating this the entire time?

Next is the C-3PO scene. He is having some work done on his head, and he tells Poe that he is “taking one last look, sir. At my friends.” My guess is that he is sacrificing his memory or something for some reason, and undergoing some major change (thus the red eyes), but it’s really hard to say based on the small amount of evidence. The thing that caught me most from this scene, however, is the B1 battle droid in the background.

I don’t know what it’s for, but it’s pretty exciting to see nonetheless.

Then we see stormtroopers being useless as always, as well as the same embrace scene between Rey and Leia from the teaser trailer. We hear Luke’s voice saying, “Confronting fear; it’s the destiny of the Jedi. Your destiny.” So we know Luke is back, but most likely no more than a Force ghost. I don’t think he’ll play a major role in this film, given what happened in the last one. Finn, from the wreckage of the Death Star, yells “REY,” not much unlike what he’s prone to doing. This also tells us that it’s not just Rey and Kylo Ren there at the Death Star.

Then we have two interesting shots in a row. The first is Rey and Kylo Ren both taking hard swipes at some sort of pedestal which appears to contain Darth Vader’s old helmet.

Notice two things here: the helmet and the dagger Rey is holding. There is a similar dagger in the legends which I won’t take the time to talk about, but it was basically used to destroy the “embodiment of the Sith” at one point. So it really seems like Kylo Ren is having a major change…

The scene immediately after is Finn, Poe, and C-3PO looking at something from a projector. We don’t see what it is, but we do see the reflection of a blue lightsaber in their eyes. So maybe they’re watching something old, like a fight from the OT or prequels, or they could be watching Rey. Who knows.

A few shots later we see Rey backing away from Emperor Palpatine, who, while we don’t see much of him, seems to be half-machine now? Well, he died in Return of the Jedi, and if he’s alive now, anything could happen. He has his normal evil laughter, and Luke Skywalker says, “The Force will be with you,” and Leia says “always.” This is during a shot of Rey, clearly emotional about something.

That was a lot. And there were a bunch of scenes I didn’t mention, but I mentioned all the most important ones, I think. So now, here are a few of my theories…

On Rey’s identity: I can't help but think back to two scenes. One is from Ep. VII, where Rey has a vision on Takodana, and basically sees a younger version of herself being pulled away as a slave, and a ship fly off into the sky. The second is from Ep. VIII where she is in the dark side cave, and asks the "mirror" to show her her parents. All she sees is a million copies of herself. There's also the part where Kylo tells Rey that "your parents are nobody," so maybe he was right but just didn't tell the whole story. These make me think Rey is a clone. Where she was cloned from and who the basis was, it's hard to say, but it's also possible or likely Palpatine has been behind this the whole time, and is now planning to use Rey for his plan.

On Kylo Ren: I can definitely see Kylo Ren coming back to the light. He has been struggling on the border between the dark and light during pretty much the entire trilogy, and it reached a peak when he killed Snoke and helped Rey fight the Praetorian Guards. We do see him fight Rey in some of the footage, but I feel very strongly that Palpatine is going to actually turn him against the Dark Side and towards Rey.

On “Reylo” and “Damarey:” No and no. Rey and Ben are not siblings and they are definitely not going to get married. It’s just not in them. Poe and Rey had a “moment” at the end of The Last Jedi that made fans go crazy, but it’s just not happening.

On Palpatine: I have a strong hunch that Snoke is in close connection with Palpatine. From Palpatine’s line, “Long have I waited. And now, your coming together is your undoing,” it really seems like he has been behind this the whole time. He’s probably using Snoke as a tool, and allowed him to be killed once he’s ready to rise again. Much like, I might add, how he used Count Dooku as a tool and allowed him to be killed eventually.

On Snoke: I don't like or endorse the Snoke is Darth Plagueis theory. For one thing, Plagueis was dead long before Palpatine and there's literally no reason for him to be involved in the sequel story. Second, most viewers of the movie will have very little idea of who Plagueis is and will know little to nothing about him. It just doesn't make sense to put him in there.

On the Knights of Ren: We're definitely going to see them. They've been out around the galaxy searching for Darth Vader's lightsaber, and the only time we saw them was in Rey's vision in The Force Awakens. All we've been able to do is speculate so far, but they could be other students with whom Ben was training, or they could be apprentices of sorts. We'll find out.

On General Hux: I feel quite positive he’s going to die somehow. Probably a similar fate to Tarkin. But he’s just one of those bad guys you know has no chance.

On Jar Jar Binks: BRING HIM BACK! You know, he might not be dead. We don’t really know how long Gungans can live. But the last we saw of him was being a Naboo senator, so who knows what could have happened to him. (Technically one of the book series, I forget which one, mentions him having become a street performer in Theed. But who knows.)

On the name of the film: The name The Rise of Skywalker could mean three things, I think. One, it could mean Rey is a Skywalker. Two, it could mean Anakin/Darth Vader is coming back. Three, it could mean that since the Jedi are ending, the new line of Force-users will be called “Skywalkers,” kind of like followers of Christ are called Christians. Personally, I like the second option the best. Anakin is the main character of Star Wars. It's not Luke. Anakin was the Chosen One. So he has to have some presence at the end of the saga, since the entire thing is about him.

On the end of the movie: The movie will end with an epic fight, Palpatine vs. Ben and Rey. Palpatine will defeat them and prepare to kill them, when all of a sudden something, maybe a portal or something, will open up and Anakin will come out. He will say some epic line like "You have destroyed my life, now I must destroy yours once and for all, as the person you denied me," then he will have a fight with Palpatine and ultimately kill him. I really want to see Anakin come back, and it only makes sense that he would come to have his full revenge. Yes, he technically did kill Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, but it was more out of compassion for his son and I would like to see him come back and finish him off. How it would happen, I don’t know, but what we do know is that we are getting music from every film including the prequels (according to Don Williams, John’s brother), so prequel characters are coming back. I could even see time travel being used, like the “World between Worlds” in the Rebels series.

However, these are all just speculations, and we’ll really have to wait till the 20th of December.

So, what do you guys think of all this? What did I miss, in both the trailer and theories? What are your own theories? Do you have any questions for me? Please comment down below!

And as always, may the Force be with you.

*Palpatine voice* HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haa