Star Wars fans told title of new film
“No one is ever really gone,” says the voice of Luke Skywalker in the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX, which audiences finally learned will be called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at a fan event in Chicago on Friday.
The closely guarded film, from director J.J. Abrams, will put an end to the Skywalker saga that began more than 40 years ago, but even as characters and actors have passed on, the footage shown at Star Wars Celebration suggests that, as with all Star Wars films, death is just a technicality a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Mark Hamill’s Skywalker might have died at the end of the most recent instalment but his voice dominates the teaser trailer, telling someone, possibly Daisy Ridley’s Rey, that, “this is your fight now.”
Audiences got a tantalizing tease from another figure from the past: Emperor Palpatine from the original and prequel trilogies, whose ominous laugh closes out the promotional spot.
Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa is back as well, despite the actress’s untimely passing in December 2016, thanks to unused footage from The Force Awakens that Abrams was able to craft into its own narrative for the new film.
“You can’t just recast and you can’t just have her disappear,” Abrams said. “The idea of having a computer-graphics character wasn’t even an option.”
Abrams is currently editing and adding visual effects to the film, which will hit theatres on Dec. 20. He said that, despite Fisher’s death, “we’re working with her every day.”
“Princess Leia lives in this film in way that is mindblowing to me,” Abrams said.
Abrams was joined on stage at the event by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and actors and droids alike, including Ridley, Oscar Isaac (Poe), John Boyega (Finn), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), newcomer Naomi Ackie, who plays a character named Jannah, Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and even Billy Dee Williams, who reprises his role as Lando Calrissian in the new film after decades away.
Star Wars superfan Stephen Colbert moderated the panel, doing his best to get the tightlipped cast and creators to reveal anything about the film.
Although no one cracked under pressure, Abrams revealed some previously known details, such as the fact that The Rise of Skywalker will pick up “some time” after the events of The Last Jedi.