What: The first trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX, which we now finally know is called Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker.
Who: Lucasfilm, director J.J. Abrams, and returning stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Kelly Marie Tran.
Why we care: The Game of Thrones engines have been revving up for the past couple of weeks as the world prepares to devour the series’ final season. At the same time, the excitement is building for The Avengers: Endgame, which marks some kind of seminal torch-passing in the Marvel universe, and is estimated to make approximately a gajillion dollars its opening weekend. With these two watershed pop-culture moments imminently upon us, it’s easy to forget that the grandaddy of all mega-franchises, Star Wars, is about half a year away from ending its sequel trilogy. So it’s a perfect time for Rey, Finn, BB-8, and the whole crew to pop in with the first footage of Episode IX, lest anyone forget their affinity for a galaxy far, far away.
Now that we’ve seen the trailer, we can go back to what Abrams told Fast Company in a recent interview about the experience of wrapping up a franchise that has meant so much to him for his entire life:
“Strangely, we were sort of relentless and almost unbearably disciplined about the story and forcing ourselves to question and answer some fundamental things that at the beginning, I absolutely had no clue how we would begin to address. I feel like we’ve gotten to a place—without jinxing anything or sounding more confident than I deserve to be—I feel like we’re in a place where we might have something incredibly special. So I feel relief being home, and I feel gratitude that I got to do it. And more than anything, I’m excited about what I think we might have.”
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