With almost exactly eight months to go before Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits movie theaters, the very first official teaser for the film has been released to the masses. It was first aired during The Last Jedi panel at this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Orlando. Shortly after, it was released to fans around the world, who got to take their first look at the next installment in the Star Wars saga.
Anyone else freaking out right now?
There is so much going on in the trailer that I’m sure people on the Internet will be picking it apart for months to come.
As with all Star Wars trailers lately, we are shown a sequence of short clips with a pseudo-narrative voice over. Luke asks Rey what she sees and she tells him that she sees: Light, Darkness, and Balance. To which Luke responds, “It’s so much bigger.”
If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will!
In the trailer we actually see Luke and Rey on Ahch-To, where we see Rey beginning to use the Force. We also see a bit of her training with a lightsaber from a distance. There’s a brief glimpse of some Jedi artifacts either on Ahch-To or elsewhere. There’s also what are likely more flashbacks to the fall of Luke’s earlier fledgling order, so it’s pretty clear we’re going to find out just what happened and how Kylo Ren turned to the Dark Side.
But for me, it was some of the other things we saw that were really interesting.
Where The Force Awakens was heavily inspired by A New Hope, the trailer makes it clear that The Last Jedi is taking its cues from The Empire Strikes Back. Besides the obvious parallels between Luke’s training with Yoda and now his training Rey, we seem to be getting a film with the same general tone and feeling.
It’s clear from what we get to see in the trailer that the Resistance is in a bad place. Yes, they destroyed the Starkiller Base in the last film, but the New Republic was also decimated. From the few battles we see, the precarious situation we find Poe and BB-8 in, and the very brief glimpse we get of General Leia Organa, it looks like the Resistance is on the run – much like the Rebellion was in The Empire Strikes Back. Even Finn’s only appearance in the trailer sees him stuck in what may just be a more advanced bacta tank, much like the one Luke was in early in The Empire Strikes Back.
Considering The Empire Strikes Back is probably the best of the original Star Wars films (if not all the Star Wars films in general), the new trilogy could certainly benefit from taking some inspiration from that one.
Here’s something that’s important to remember, though, when developing your own theories and speculations: the voiceovers in The Force Awakens and Rogue One were frequently either comprised of dialogue that didn’t happen in the movie or that was removed entirely in editing.
It may be too early to speculate on anything but Luke’s on-screen comment at the end – and even that I suspect is being shown out of context. After all, if he really thinks the Jedi should come to an end would he then turn around and train Rey as we can safely assume he’s doing in earlier parts of the trailer?
There’s a lot more in this trailer that’s probably worth touching on but for now, these are just some of our very early first impressions.
What did you guys think? What clues have you unearthed and what theories do you have so far? We’d love to hear them!
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