During Monday night’s Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings football game, the action packed second (and final) trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi debuted. The first trailer for the film was released in April and offered a brief glimpse at where the film and its characters are going, and a nice behind-the-scenes look at Disney’s D-23 Expo in July, however, this latest trailer provided fans with much more to see.
On Monday Rian Johnson, the film’s director, went on Twitter before the trailer dropped to tell fans that if they wanted to come into the film “100% clean” then they should avoid it, calling himself a “weak man” for not being able to keep himself from watching the trailers. That, of course, did not stop the majority of avid Star Wars fans who flocked to watch the trailer during the game and when it was officially released online.
The two minute, thirty-five second tease seemed to reveal much about the upcoming installment. As the eighth installment in the franchise, the movie picks up right after 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens which ended with newcomer Rey locating the long lost Jedi, Luke Skywalker, on his isolated island.
Aside from visually stunning space fights and explosions, in the trailer we see Rey giving Luke his old lightsaber back and training with it, as well as demonstrating her own powers within the Force by levitating rocks and cracking stone. However, we also see that Skywalker seems genuinely weary of the young girl’s “raw strength,” as he puts it, because he’s seen it before, but it didn’t scare him then. Many fans have speculated that he is most likely talking about his former student and nephew Kylo Ren, the last film’s villain, who also gets many new shots of him throwing a temper tantrum and leading the First Order’s attack on a Resistance ship. The same ship his mother the former princess now general, Leia Organa helms which he hesitates to fire on. Poe and Finn are also featured prominently with General Organa fighting back against the First Order with the Resistance with Poe piloting and Finn using a lightsaber again against Captain Phasma.
The trailer ends on an ominous note for Rey as we see her getting tortured, then asking someone to show her her place in all this, to which the camera then cuts to Kylo Ren who offers his hand to her. This particular moment sent fans into a frenzy, speculating theories as to whether Rey will truly turn to the Dark Side, or if this is just a fake out by production to trick the fans.
Considering this is another Star Wars installment and there is so much hype surrounding the film, it’s not surprising that within the initial 24 hours of the trailer being released online, it has absolutely dominated social media talk, and a few hours before the trailer arrived, Lucasfilms revealed the incredibly red – and aesthetically pleasing – theatrical poster.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives to theaters on December, 15th.
