Turn away now if you don’t like spoilers…
So we now have two trailers for the next Star Wars film. Can I buy tickets, yet? If you haven’t seen them, here you go:
For me the trailers, as well as the Star Wars Rebels television show, have clearly demonstrated that the Star Wars universe is in good hands at Disney. It’s such a relief to feel like someone finally gets it—someone finally understands, which is what makes the following video so hilarious.
On a very small level, that’s exactly what I feel like today.
I’m also a trailer analyzer. Yep, I’m the guy who wants to “figure it all out” before I see the film and then check if my guesses are right. If you want to be surprised, this is you last exit.
Here’s what I think we know based on the two trailers:
1. We get a female jedi/padawan person. I think that’s pretty obvious by Luke’s narrative in the second trailer. It’s his niece.
2. The empire has crumbled. The crashed Star Destroyer seems to indicate that.
3. Rogue Squadron flies again. We know that there are a group of X-wing fighter pilots in the film. We don’t know their role but, I’m going to say that they are Rogue Squadron, which explains the name of the stand alone film in 2017.
4. The new empire has many faces. It seems to me that we are getting a much more complex empire a la The Clone Wars. There are at least two major bad guys. There’s the pilot/dark stormtrooper and the sith. They both wear capes, but I think they are separate because the stormtrooper is holding a blaster not a light saber. (I could be wrong about that.)
5. Although it may appear so in the second trailer, the new empire is not based on Hoth. Since we went back to Tatooine again, it might feel right to think that we must bring balance to the force by putting the Empire on Hoth. The icy location with gun emplacements and storm troopers in number 2 might make one think so, but I’m saying no because we already saw our Sith running around in the snow in the trees in trailer 1. There are no trees on Hoth, so nope, it’s not Hoth. (Too bad.)
6. Not everyone is happy about the rise of the new empire. We have a runner… Somebody is trying to kill a runaway stormtrooper on Tatooine. We see him run in the first trailer—scared look, stormtrooper outfit. We see him get shot at by a tie-fighter in the second.
7. Said stormtrooper is the call to adventure for the Padawan/Jedi girl. We see her reach out to him, and they are running together when the tie fighter shows up. It’s Luke’s story: Something falls from the sky on Tatooine and changes my life forever. With all the things that rain down on the planet how does anyone survive?
8. Somebody is firing one of the new tricked out tie-fighters into the docking bay of the new fangled Star Destroyer. All is not going according to plan on the dark side.
And finally…
9. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a character whose name starts with Darth… He’s admitted to being on set, so we know he has a part. He also has incredibly distinct pronunciation. Listen carefully to the voiceover in the first trailer. That’s Cumberbatch’s voice all tricked out. Since he talks about the force, I’m saying he’s the Sith with a nifty looking new light saber.
So there you go. Can I buy tickets, yet?
We can see how I did in December.
These sound reasonable to me, though i thought i read somewhere that the desert planet in the second teaser is not Tatooine, but some other desert planet.
Hmmm… wouldn’t surprise me. You have “not Hoth” cold world, you could easily get the “not Tatooine” hot world.
Great summary Erik. I’ll add two things:
1. The desert planet is called jack, don’t know much more than that, but given all the wreckage, I would guess it was the site of a major battle.
2. Han’s statement about being home makes me think they go to Corellia, maybe even the planet where you see the X-Wings flying over the lake.
Just some guesses, but I am very excited.
Yep, the panel at the StarWars Celebration confirmed it isn’t Tatooine.
Fascinating. I don’t usually try to pick the trailers apart, but this was a fun read. Waiting impatiently for the movie.