Our final hyper-analysis of 'Star Wars' trailers - until, y'know, the next one that's inevitably going to come.
The final trailer for 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' landed online this morning, with plenty of action and spectacle to get through, but precious little plot.
Obviously, director JJ Abrams has famously kept details on the movie to a bare minimum and prefers audiences to come in cold. That being said, there's definitely a lot going in the trailer that caught our eye. As it's been for 'The Force Awakens' and 'The Last Jedi', we're doing a hyper-analysis on the trailer.
Let's begin with...
So, this looks like Rey is deep in training. Why training, you ask? Well, the noise of her lightsaber deflecting a blaster bolt is very similar to the sound effect from 'A New Hope' where Luke Skywalker was using a training ball to bounce blaster bolts away. Yes, reader, we're getting that in depth here. Strap in.
Then we cut straight to what appears to be the wreckage of the Death Star, and is a nice little callback to Rey crawling around the wreckage in 'The Force Awakens' trailer. This is probably on the lead-up to the big fight scene with her and Kylo Ren.
Finn looking off into the distance at something, looking very concerned. Not a lot to go on here, but hey, the new hair looks great. Then we fade to...
That's Lando Calrissian there giving a briefing to the pilots and what appears to be a Mon Calamari standing directly behind him. There's been rumours that Admiral Ackbar's son would have some kind of role in the movie, and our guess is that what that's all about. When 'Return of the Jedi' finished, Lando Calrissian was still a General in the Rebel Alliance, so either he resigned his commission like Han did, or he stayed on. Either way, he's back in action.
There's Kelly Marie Tran back as Rose Tico, and behind her is Drive Shaft lead singer Charlie Pace - no, it's Dominic Monaghan - and someone who looks suspiciously like Nora Zehetner from 'Designated Survivor', but who knows?
That's an X-Wing behind Finn, Poe and Chewie. Our guess is Poe got a new X-Wing after his famous black one was blown to crap in 'The Last Jedi'.
Now, time for some major speculation here. Our guess is that they're actually hiding out on Yavin IV, and that the training sequence earlier was Rey in training there. Not only that, that ship that's coming out of the foliage is almost definitely the Tantive IV, the ship that featured in 'A New Hope' and was the royal family of Alderaan's private ship.
Next up, we've got this very moody establishing shot of the fight between Rey and Kylo Ren. By all accounts, this looks like it's on a planet and is where the teaser ended. In the next image, you can see Rey standing behind what looks like a gun battery. We also know that this is where the Death Star wreckage is, so either it's Endor - which is where 'Return of the Jedi' was set - or it's some secret, third Death Star that was hidden away or scuttled.
This fight comes up again and again throughout the trailer, but don't be in the least bit surprised if this ends up being early enough in the movie or something. It's often been the case where there's a lot of misdirection in the trailers, or that stuff is placed out of sequence to throw people like us off the scent. Then we move on to...
What looks like some kind of secret ice-asteroid base. This is definitely in space and not some iceberg as the stars above and below the ice give it away. This is probably where the hidden Imperial fleet has been hidden away, which comes up in just a little bit.
Now, prepare for some MAJOR speculation here. This throne looks suspiciously like the Sith Emperor's throne from the MMORPG, 'Star Wars: The Old Republic'. Odds are that this is merely a coincidence and not actually anything remotely related, but the similarity is striking and enough for us to mention it.
When we said earlier that the Imperial Fleet was hidden in the ice asteroid thing, this is what we meant. Our guess is that the entire fleet is actually in the iceberg and cracks open, meaning that the First Order is trying to gain control of it and probably the stage for the massive space battle in the next shot.
Anyone who watches 'Star Wars: Rebels' will be able to spot the ship just to the right of the Millennium Falcon. Regardless, this looks like a major space battle and, sure enough, it's Lando Calrissian behind the controls of the Falcon once again. Expect that sensor dish to be shot off and some reference to that point, as well.
This is out of sequence, because it looks like Rey, Poe, Chewie and Finn are in that space battle when in, actual fact, it's Lando and Chewie. Still, this is a nice little scene so why not put it in?
Back to the big fight scene with Kylo and Rey. Nobody has the high ground here. Yet...
Some big explosion here. How granular are we going to get with this, you ask? See the exhaust port down at the bottom right of the image? That's from a Star Destroyer. BOOM.
Another shot of the Death Star wreckage. That looks very similar to the firing dish where the planet-destroying beam comes from, so expect that to be some kind of plot point.
Again, this is another sweet moment with C3P0 announcing that he's having one last look at his friends. We don't get to see C3P0 in soldier mode like the leaked posters seemed to suggest, but no doubt that's a big reveal in the movie itself.
Is this Jakku or this Tatooine? We had the same issue with 'The Force Awakens' trailer, where everyone was certain it was Tatooine when in actual fact, it was Jakku. It probably is Jakku, in fairness, because it'd tie with in the symmetry of 'A New Hope' beginning on Tatooine and 'Return of the Jedi' doing the same.
Billy Dee Williams! Explosions! Headsets! This movie's got it all!
That's a Y-Wing attacking the under-side of an Imperial Star Destroyer. But then...
You've got Finn, newcomer Naomi Ackie as Jannah, RIDING A STRING OF SPACE HORSES UP THE SIDE OF A STAR DESTROYER.
Now, here's something very cool. That's the Emperor's throne room, with the window behind the seat pulled straight from 'Return of the Jedi'. The visual reference point for the window was a spider's web, with the Emperor at the middle of it. Nearly 40 years on, it's the same thing again - two people caught in a spider's web.
Kylo Ren and Rey teaming up?! To fight someone?! Who'd have possibly have thunk?
*'Careless Whisper plays softly in the background*
"My lovely horse, running through the fields, where are you going with your fetlocks blowing in the wind?"
There's something we've noticed in all the teasers so far that Kylo Ren always seemed to be covered in some kind of colouring in each scene he's in. For example, 'The Last Jedi', he was almost always in red and it was the same in 'The Force Awakens'. Here, however, he's in blue and as we know, blue is the "good" colour in this universe. Is this perhaps suggesting he's going to turn? It's been speculated, but this could well be the case because of the final scene. But not before...
That's the Emperor for sure, and he looks like he's in some kind of floating thing, probably a life-support machine, and he's bearing down on top of Rey while he monologues. Our guess? His body was destroyed at the end of 'Return of the Jedi' and he transferred his essence into another body which itself is now dying, and he wants to transfer it again to either Kylo or Rey - whoever survives the fight.
It's only there for a brief second, but you can see Rey smiling right at the end of the trailer. What does that mean, then? Has Kylo turned? It certainly would seem that way, because throughout 'The Last Jedi', Rey was constantly on about how she felt the conflict inside Kylo Ren. Of course, it might be something else entirely different and it probably is, but still, it's fun to speculate.
Of course, all will eventually be revealed on December 17th when the movie lands in Irish cinemas. We'll have a review before then and - hopefully - we'll be talking to some of the people involved with the movie as well.