The long wait is over. Well, the first part of the long wait is over, because the very first trailer forStar Wars: The Last Jedihas finally arrived. The footage was revealed duringThe Last Jedipanel atStar WarsCelebration and, while it may not have answered all of our burning questions, the trailer delivered a whole lot for us to pick apart and try and figure out. We are here to help you take a closer look at the trailer and go over everything we learned aboutStar Wars: The Last Jediat the panel.
Star Wars Celebrationhas brought us a ton of great stuff already, but there is no question that theStar Wars: The Last Jeditrailer was the main thing fans all around the world were looking forward to heading into the weekend. Understandably so. All of the newStar Warsmovies have been pretty secretive, but even with all of the new footage and reveals,Star Wars: The Last Jediis a whole new level of secretive. Disney, Lucasfilm and directorRian Johnsonare keeping this movie under lock and key until the time is right. But we still learned a lot from this footage.
Because this happened atStar WarsCelebration, there was also a big, hour-long panel forStar Wars: The Last Jedithat gave us even more to think about and revealed even more about what is probably the most highly-anticipated movie of 2017. The panel included directorRian Johnson, Lucasfilm PresidentKathleen Kennedyand a bunch of the cast, includingDaisy Ridley,Mark Hamill,John Boyegaandnewcomer Kelly Marie Tran.
Fans of theStar Warsfranchise have hadcountless questionsheading intoStar Wars: The Last Jedi, which has a lot to do with what was brought to the table inStar Wars: The Force Awakens. We can’t say that many of those questions were answered atStar WarsCelebration, while more interesting questions were raised. And we learned things we had no idea that we even wanted to know. The mystery of this movie is continuing to build and unravel simultaneously.
We still have about eight months to wait until the movie finally hits theaters, so we will surely be learning quite a bit more between now and then. Or maybe we won’t. Again, this movie really seems to be bathed in secrecy to an almost maddening degree. With that said, here is everything we learned aboutStar Wars: The Last JediatStar WarsCelebration.
15Rey begins her Jedi training.
There is still a lot of mystery surrounding Rey inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, but this very first trailer guaranteed that we are going to see her doing some Jedi training. This was highly suspected, given the way that things ended inStar Wars: The Force Awakens, but there is no need to speculate anymore. The very first thing we see in the trailer is Rey out of breath, looking pretty flustered, with Luke doing someYoda-style voice over, guiding her along. We also see her doing some very sweet lightsaber moves and she even movies some rocks with her force powers. That shot was very reminiscent of the last shot inBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, oddly, but Rey is most definitely on her way to becoming a strong force user. And it is clear she is getting better at handling a lightsaber. It is unclear if she will finish her training, especially considering some of the other things that happen in this firstStar Wars: The Last Jeditrailer. But expect a good chunk of this movie to revolve around Rey and Luke doing some training, much like Luke and Yoda did inStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
14Luke is a disappointment to Rey.
Seeing Luke Skywalker at all will be a huge deal forStar Warsfans come time forStar Wars: The Last Jedito finally hit theaters. It will be hard to imagine a world in which we are disappointed with Luke, but that doesn’t mean the main character in the movie will be equally thrilled with him. While talking about Rey atThe Last Jedipanel,Daisy Ridleysaid, “We go deeper into Rey’s story. What is very apparent from where we left off in The Force Awakens and begin with The Last Jedi is Rey has a certain expectation as to what she may be getting from Luke and what that might entail and as a lot of people know, it is difficult when you meet your heroes because it might not be what you expect.” So even though Rey is being trained by Luke, it sounds like he may not be the man and the Jedi that she was hoping he would be.
13Kylo Ren is a very changed man.
He doesn’t utter a single word, and we only see one actual shot of him in the trailer, but it is very obvious that Kylo Ren is not the same man we saw at the end ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens. Killing your own father clearly changes a person. Before we actually see Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, in the trailer, we see a very fascinating and ominous image of his helmet totally and completely smashed. Did he have another one of his emo fits of rage and his helmet was a casualty of said rage? Did someone smash it without his permission? Was it a very intentional smashing? There is no context for it, but when we finally do see Kylo Ren, he is without his helmet. So he didn’t seem to be in a rush to find a replacement. When we do actually see him, he is unmistakably in a dark place. He has his lightsaber up and a dark yet hollow look in his eyes. But what is really telling is the scar that he has on his face, which looks to be a result of his lightsaber battle with Rey inStar Wars: The Force Awakens. Even without a single word coming from his mouth, this trailer presents us with a seemingly darker and conflicted Kylo ren.
12Old Jedi teachings will play an important role.
One of the most fascinating sequences in the first trailer forStar Wars: The Last Jedicame in the form of what looked to be some old books containing Jedi teachings, with an unknown figure having a look at them. The Jedi symbol can be seen on one of the dusty books, with an unidentified, gloved hand brushing some of the dust away. It seems very much like these books contain someancient Jedi teachings. As to who owns these books and what books they might be exactly? That could be the million dollar question from the trailer. For those who have kept up with theStar Warscomic, we know that Luke discovered old journals from Obi-Wan Kenobi at one point. So maybe Luke has been hiding these somewhere? That is just speculative, but these books definitely seem to contain some ancient Jedi knowledge.
11Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are looming near Rey.
Just before the sequence that reveals what appear to be books containing ancient Jedi Knowledge and/or teachings, there is something a bit quiet that is seriously exciting. As the camera zooms in on the books, there is some very quiet voice over that sounds like none other than the Jedi Master himself, Yoda. It is only three syllables that are very difficult to make out, because the score is playing quite loudly over it, but it sounds very much likeFrank Ozdoing the voice of Yoda. There have been rumors that Yoda will appear as a Force ghost inStar Wars: The Last Jedifor a very long time and, during SXSW,Frank Ozeven alluded to his potential involvement with the movie. Since these books seem to contain Jedi teachings and Luke is going to be training Rey, it makes every bit of sense that Yoda would be showing up in some way or another. This seems to be our very first hint of that and that should be more than enough to getStar Warsfans pumped even more about this movie.
10We’re getting some cool new vehicles.
There are also some really cool, really crazy new ships featured in this first trailer forStar Wars: The Last Jedi. During one of the more eye-popping action sequences, there are what seems to be some AT-ATs approaching in the distance and what we assume are members of the Resistance who are going on the offensive. The vehicles look to be like a ground assault version of a B-Wing. What is fascinating is that they ships have a piece that comes down and combs the surface, kicking up a cloud of dust. Is that an offensive tactic to blind the walkers? In any case, this scene is very reminiscent of the famed Hoth battle inStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, but on a desert planet as opposed to a frozen planet. There are also some new ships shown in one of the space battle sequences. These new ships look to be an updated version of the Rebel Assault Frigate. The Resistance needs to hope they are durable because the First Order is on the offensive in this sequence. There are probably going to be some more new ships in the movie, no doubt, but we already have a couple of very impressive new ones to check out, courtesy of this first trailer.
9An important new planet has been revealed.
Speaking of that dusty planet the walker attack looks to be taking place on, directorRian Johnsonhas already revealed some details on said planet. For one, the planet is called Crait. “It’s way out there. It’s uncharted,” he says, making it sound like it could be part of the outer rim. This sounds like the kind of place that people go to escape the grip of organizations like the Empire and the First Order.Rian Johnsonalso said that “It’s a mineral planet and so there are mines on it and that there is “an old rebel base there that’s now abandoned. So that could explain where these cool new ships are coming from to fight off those walkers.
8Old school vehicles will return.
It wouldn’t be aStar Warsmovie without some classic ships, which we got plenty of in this first trailer forStar Wars: The Last Jedi. There was a great shot of the Millennium Falcon, Some X-Wings and many more. There is even a shot in the hanger whenPoe’s X-Winggets blown to pieces that appears to be an A-Wing. And you can definitely see an A-Wing in combat during the aerial battle. We also can’t escape the ever looming threat of the Tie Fighter, which is featured in spades in this trailer. With the classic ships in this trailer we can see that this movie will be a blend of old and new.
7Kelly Marie Tran plays Rose the maintenance worker.
There are several new cast members joining the franchise inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, includingBenicio Del ToroandLaura Dern. While we still haven’t heard anything official about either one of them, nor did we see them in the trailer,Rian Johnsondid divulge some details on newcomerKelly Marie Tran. Her character is going to be named Rose and she, according to the director, will have the largest role in the movie of any of the new characters. She is a mechanic in the Resistance who gets pulled into a big mission with Finn.Kelly Marie Trancame on stage to talk a bit about the character and her experience, saying “So many people tell you what this is going to feel like, and you just hear so much excitement and so much love for this thing, and you just want to do it justice.” Since the First Order is on the offensive inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, the Resistance is going to need all of the help they can get.
6There will be a lot of BB-8 comedic relief.
We knew unquestionably that BB-8 will be featured inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, even prior to all ofStar WarsCelebration’s big reveals. But it has been confirmed that, not only is BB-8 going to be in this movie, there is going to be a whole lot of him. While speaking at the panel, directorRian Johnsonsaid that the advice he was given is that you can’t have enough BB-8. And he took that to heart. We saw a few shots of our favorite new droid in the trailer and he is back with his buddy Poe.Rian Johnsonalso said that BB-8 is going to be the major comedic relief inStar Wars 8, saying that he will be the “Buster Keaton” of this movie. So BB-8 lovers are in luck, because he will be all overStar Wars: The Last Jedi.
