Now witness the firepower of an armed and fully operational hype machine.
Lucasfilm dropped the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi Friday at noon in front of a raucous crowd at the Star Wars Celebration convention—and for an even larger audience watching the streaming footage online from around the world.
The minute and a half of footage shows the film picking up in the immediate aftermath of last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) training his disciple Rey (Daisy Ridley) the way Yoda once trained him.
Judging from the quick cuts of action sequences that follow, she’ll need plenty of training. There is a succession of space battles, and visual evidence that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) will once again break out his cross-shaped lightsaber to menace the forces of the resistance.
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There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia in silhouette, a reminder of the void left by the actress’ death last December after production on Star Wars: The Last Jedi wrapped.
The clip ends as enigmatically as it begins.
“I only know one truth,” Luke says in a voiceover, “it’s time for the Jedi to end.” That, though, is not quite true: Episode IX, which ends the current trilogy, is currently in production, and a Han Solo prequel is in the midst of a filming. That’s undoubtedly just the start of Disney’s grand plans for the Star Wars universe after buying Lucasfilm from creator George Lucas in 2012 for $4 billion.
Adjusted for inflation, the franchise remains in its own orbit, having netted $6.5 billion at the box office in the U.S. alone.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson and also starring John Boyega and Oscar Isaac, hits theaters on Dec. 15.
—RealClearLife
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