By now you’ve surely seen the newStar Wars: The Last Jeditrailerat least a couple of times. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to check outour selection of images from the traileras well since they show off a bunch of new footage fromRian Johnson’s upcoming film. However, pictures alone don’t tell the whole story. We’ve had months and months of lead-up toStar Wars: The Last Jedi’s release (with only a couple more months to go), so we’ve rounded up everything we know in order to break down this latest trailer. Take a deep breath before the plunge.
Star Wars: The Last JedistarsJohn Boyega(Finn),Daisy Ridley(Rey),Oscar Isaac(Poe Dameron),Adam Driver(Kylo Ren),Lupita Nyong’o(Maz Kanata),Gwendoline Christie(Captain Phasma),Dohmnall Gleeson(General Hux),Mark Hamill(Luke Skywalker), the lateCarrie Fisher(General Leia),Anthony Daniels(C-3PO), andAndy Serkis(Snoke), joined by newcomerKelly Marie Tran. The film is scheduled for release on July 19, 2025.
In mybreakdown of the previous trailerforStar Wars: The Last Jedi, we learned that the film would be paying homage to those that came before it by including references to previous training team-ups as they compare to Luke and Rey. There were also nods to someStar Wars Rebelscharacters and mythology, an introduction to the mineral-rich mining planet Crait, a new pilot for the Millennium Falcon, as well as new adventures for Poe Dameron. Finn, meanwhile, was locked down in the med bay, but that’s just one of many things that changes in this new trailer.
Here are some things we learned from theStar WarsCelebration panel; let’s see how they check out with this new trailer before diving in to the full thing:
It’s also worth keeping in mind that this trailer was cut in order tosellpeople on the movie, not inform audiences as to its every plot point. It should go without saying that these edits and dialogue/scene pairings of should be viewed with a skeptical eye. I’ll try to keep the speculation to a minimum and keep things focused to what we know and what we can confidently assume.
Luke and Rey
A big part of the trailer focuses on the training between Luke and Rey, even while keeping the details of their relationship somewhat vague. If the trailer is to be trusted, the movie itself will play up the mentor-apprentice relationship of Luke and Rey, as well as that of Snoke and Kylo Ren (and even General Leia and commander Poe Dameron, but more on that in a moment). The strained dynamic between Luke and Rey can be summed up by their dialogue:
Rey: “Something inside me has always been there, but now it’s awake … and I need help.”
Luke: “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before. It didn’t scare me enough then; it does now.”
Luke’s failed mentorship of Kylo Ren, which led to disaster, is obviously weighing on him all these years later and will certainly impact his training of Rey. Could it be that his hesitation to train her properly will lead to her failure? Or will Rey’s decision to do, or do not, as her mentor advises be her undoing?
Another of Rey’s lines of dialogue is edited to appear like she’s speaking to Kylo Ren, but it could just as well be meant for Luke: “I need someone to show me my place in all of this.”
Perhaps this is the line that wins Luke over to start their training in earnest. Regardless of how this works out, it looks like we’ll be getting some scenes on Ahch-To that harken back to the swamps of Dagobah when Master Yoda trained a young Luke Skywalker.
While it remains to be seen whether or not Rey and Kylo Ren will clash lightsabers again inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, it seems pretty clear that Rey is going to wind up on the wrong end of Supreme Leader Snoke’s powers. That’s a pretty big reveal for the trailer, which explains why Johnson advised people to avoid the trailer if they wanted to go into the film completely fresh.
This scene echoes Luke’s run-in with Emperor Palpatine inReturn of the Jedi, but could very well end up like the heart-stopping climax ofThe Empire Strikes Back. As Luke warns, “This is not going to go the way you think,” though whether he’s warning Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in a flashback or Rey in the present remains to be seen; my money’s on the latter.
Elsewhere in the galaxy, Finn has troubles of his own to handle. We don’t get a whole lot of Boyega’s character here (though it’s much more than what we saw in the previous trailer), but what we get is electric. Finn’s back with the First Order at some point, though just how he gets there and the manner in which he’s received is still unclear. However, a fiery battle of skills against Captain Phasma is certainly one way to test Finn’s loyalty to either side.
Boyega expanded onhis role and Rose’s inThe Last Jedi:
“Everyone in space, throughout the galaxy, would have heard about the young Jedi who discovered her powers and defeated Kylo Ren and the young former Stormtrooper who helped save the day. He’s a hero to people like Rose, who fight for the Resistance because their homes have been destroyed by the First Order.” Rose, who travels with him, is a bit of a nobody, while her sister Paige is a bigger deal, “a Resistance gunner who fights on the front lines alongside Resistance luminaries like Poe Dameron."
We’ll also get a bit more on Finn’s backstory, asBoyega confirmed:
“We will learn more about his past and where he came from, and potentially why he made the decision [to escape] that he made. I’m also very curious. The question that needs to be answered is why he decided to leave as a stormtrooper in the first place. We will find out just a little bit more about him.”
Unfortunately, there’s no sign of Rose or Paige in this latest trailer.
Poe Dameron
We do get a bit more Poe, though! He’s back to flying his modified T-70 X-wing Black One and fighting the good fight. As he says, “We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.”
Poe won’t be alone in his adventures in this film;he’ll be guided by General Leiaherself, as Isaac clarified:
“Poe is in some ways a surrogate son for Leia. But also I think she sees in him the potential for a truly great leader of the Resistance and beyond. Poe’s arc is one of evolving from a heroic soldier to a seasoned leader, to see beyond the single-mindedness of winning the battle to the larger picture of the future of the galaxy. I think Leia knows she won’t be around forever and she, with tough love, wants to push Poe to be more than the badass pilot, to temper his heroic impulses with wisdom and clarity.”
It’s difficult to tell just when/what/where Poe is flying, but we’re going to hope that he’s partnered up with pal BB-8 once more.
We’ve covered the Light Side, so let’s talk about the Dark. This trailer actually opens with Snoke’s voice saying, “When I found you, I saw raw, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special.” Clearly, those words are intended for Kylo Ren.
InStar Wars: The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren was introduced as a Darth Vader fanboy of sorts, obsessed with the Sith Lord. After executing his own father, Han Solo, Kylo Ren appears to have put the past behind him, or is at least in the process of doing so. In this trailer, he smashes his helmet, a pale imitation of Vader’s own, and he’s being encouraged by Snoke to move forward and embrace his power. As Kylo Ren (I believe) says in this trailer, “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become who you were meant to be.”
Is this Kylo Ren’s mantra to himself, or perhaps an attempt to sway Rey to the Dark Side? And just how far will Kylo Ren go to put the past behind him? Will he take out his own mother as well? The trailer certainly suggests that he’s at least strongly considering it, seeing as he hesitates to destroy a ship where General Leia is presumably onboard while flying his custom TIE Silencer.
And what’s up with that scar/bandage? Does it heal up over the course of the movie to reveal Kylo’s marred but stitched-up face below? Either way, I dig the aesthetic.
Johnson shed some light on the writing processwhich touched on things like Kylo Ren’s state of mind, “I feel like almost everyone is in that rehabilitation state. You know, I don’t think that patricide is all that it’s cracked up to be. Maybe that’s where Kylo Ren is starting from. His external scar is probably as much an internal one.”
Of course, Ren’s story will be tied into the reveal of what became of Luke afterReturn of the Jedi, asHamill himself talked about:
“[Luke] made a huge mistake in thinking that his nephew was the chosen one, so he invested everything he had in Kylo, much like Obi-Wan did with my character. And he is betrayed, with tragic consequences. Luke feels responsible for that. That’s the primary obstacle he has to rejoining the world and his place in the Jedi hierarchy, you know? It’s that guilt, that feeling that it’s his fault, that he didn’t detect the darkness in him until it was too late.”
Johnson continued, saying:
“Writing Kylo Ren is just so much fun,” says Johnson “Star Warsboils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That’s the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it’s also Kylo. In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he’s the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they’re two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He’s not Vader — at least, he’s not Vaderyet— and that’s something I really wanted to get into.”
Supreme Leader Snoke
This trailer offers us our first good look at Snoke, though how much we learn about him remains to be seen.Johnson teased a bitin an earlier interview: “Similar to Rey’s parentage, Snoke is here to serve a function in the story. And a story is not a Wikipedia page. For example, in the original trilogy, we didn’t knowanythingabout the Emperor except what Luke knew about him, that he’s the evil guy behind Vader. Then in the prequels, you kneweverythingabout Palpatine because his rise to power was the story.” InThe Last Jedi, Johnson says, “we’ll learn exactly as much about Snoke as we need to.”
And in this trailer, we learn that Snoke is likely encouraging Kylo Ren’s abilities but also quite powerful in his own right. I think it’s a safe bet to say that the golden-gowned Supreme Leader is the one force-torturing Rey at the trailer’s end, but how much more we’ll get of this mysterious character remains to be seen.
Characters, Droids, and Vehicles
There’s a lot going on in this new trailer and the main characters get the bulk of the attention, but other characters and critters get their share of the spotlight, too. There’s Chewbacca and an unnamed Porg, of course. What’s interesting here is that they seem to be flying the Millennium Falcon through a red-mineral cave … underground. I’m wondering if the planet Crait is actually sort of a giant geode where the battle will not only take place on the surface, but beneath it as well.
Then there’s this sort of icy fox/lynx creature, which is delightful:
Along with some hero shots of characters we met in the last movie but will hopefully get to spend more time with this time around:
Johnson also talked about thenew charactersthat would be joining the party:
Boyega offered upa bit more on Del Toro’s DJ, an enigmatic figure whose “tattered, threadbare clothes and lackadaisical attitude conceal a sharp mind and expert skills”:
“We just need a codebreaker and he’s the best in the galaxy. Unfortunately, he’s very dodgy and only in it for financial gain. He doesn’t fight for any side.. He has distinct opinions. The Resistance bombs the First Order one day, the First Order bombs the Resistance on another. It’s an ongoing war that will never end. For him, he’s trying to benefit off of that — which doesn’t make him the person you want to trust.”
Other characters include Maz Kanata,who will have a smaller role in this film, and the new droid, BB-9E. But there’s more toStar Warsthan just characters and planets; there’s theepic vehicles and starships, too!
The Heavy Walker AT-M6–the “M6” stands for Megacaliber Six, which is the name of the cannon on its back–gets a glamour shot in this trailer, showing off its knuckle-type feet. Another vehicle on display is the First Order Dreadnought, which is the evolution of the Star Destroyer. It measures “7,700 meters long and sports two orbital auto cannons and a ton of anti-aircraft cannons on its surface.” Yikes.
While there’s still quite a bit left to play out inStar Wars: The Last Jedi, this teaser and the months of marketing ahead of its release do offer up a decent chunk of the story we can expect to see. Expect Finn to go off on a sort of soul-searching adventure with Rose, Poe to learn how to be a leader under General Leia as they attempt to strike down the First Order, and for both Rey and Kylo Ren to advance their abilities under their respective mentors. What we’re not quite sure of just yet is what the First Order’s plan is in all of this–or just how fun the Canto Bight casino scene is going to be–but the good news is that the wait is almost over.
Feel free to share your thoughts, theories, concerns, and more in the comments!
