Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer — No One’s Ever Really Gone

The first trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker is here. Disney released a two-minute teaser trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, the third chapter of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the final one in the Skywalker saga at the ongoing Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, where returning director J.J. Abrams was present alongside Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Soutamo, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, R2-D2, and Naomi Ackie. Ian McDiarmid made a surprise appearance in the trailer and then on stage after the teaser reveal, suggesting his character, Emperor Palpatine has a role to play in The Rise of Skywalker.

The Rise of Skywalker teaser opens with Rey (Ridley) breathing heavily on a desert planet, seemingly waiting for something. “We've passed down all we know, a thousand generations live in you now,” Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) says in a voice-over. “But this is your fight.”

Rey then whips out her lightsaber and runs from a First Order shuttle that approaches her at speed, before performing a miraculous feat, as she jumps over it. There are a lot of glimpses of action in new teaser trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, which concludes with maniac cackling towards the end that feels like it definitely belongs to Emperor Palpatine. More so given the voice-over that precedes it from Luke: “No one's ever really gone.”

“This movie is about the new generation, what they have inherited: the light and the dark,” said Abrams. “[The Rise of Skywalker] doesn't pick up immediately [after The Last Jedi], some time has gone by. This is an adventure that the group goes on together.”

Kennedy emphasised that what makes it also special, apart from being three three-act structures, is that it's been told over 40 years.

The returning cast of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker includes Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Soutamo, Anthony Daniels, Billie Lourd, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher. Previously unreleased footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi will be used for Fisher, who died in 2016.

On stage, Abrams talked about how they move on without Fisher on The Rise of Skywalker: “The weird miracle of having had the scenes from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi having gone unused. Looking at those scenes and starting to understand that there was a way to use those scenes to continue her story. […] What if we could write scenes around her. The crazy thing is, emotionally, every day she hits me she's not here. But we are working with her, she's there on screen.”

Billy Dee Williams returns from the original trilogy as Lando Calrissian, and is joined by newcomers in Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, Naomi Ackie, and Richard E. Grant. Ackie confirmed that her character is called Jannah.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will release December 20, 2019 in India and across the world.