As many of you may be aware, the teaser trailer and title of Star Wars: Episode IX dropped on Friday during the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. The title is The Rise of Skywalker. After watching the Episode IX panel and the subsequent teaser for the next film in the iconic franchise, I’ve had some time to process the whole thing. This post is going to be filled with a lot of speculation, which is one of the funnest things to do when a new Star Wars film is announced. While I’m going to hypothesize on what the main title means for the film later on in the post, I want to address the elephant in the room: Emperor Palpatine. At the end of the teaser, you hear a maniacal cackle which can only belong to one person: Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. If you saw the Episode IX panel which I believe is currently available on YouTube, then you will know that after the teaser played, Ian McDiarmid appears and says “Roll it again.” This was significant because it cements the fact that the main villain of the Skywalker saga, Palpatine is indeed in Episode IX. In an interview with Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, she revealed that the Emperor’s presence in Episode IX was always part of the plan. From a story-telling standpoint, this actually makes a lot of sense. Darth Sidious was/is a master manipulator. He orchestrated everything from the Clone Wars to the battle at Endor, and I do mean everything. While it was certainly shocking to see that Sidious makes a return in the new film, it’s not actually a surprise that he’s here or that he’s behind the events of the last two films. But how could Palpatine be in this new movie? We all saw him get tossed into the reactor shaft by Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi. So, he should be dead, right? Right? Not necessarily.
In the old canon before Disney acquired Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, there was a Dark Horse graphic novel called Star Wars: Dark Empire. It took place about 6 years after the Battle of Endor where the fledgling New Republic was still fighting the remnants of the Empire. However, the Empire was putting up a much stronger fight than the Republic had anticipated, leading to people to speculate that a new Dark Side user had taken control. As it turns out, it was Palpatine. How did he survive? He did, but his body didn’t. See, in Dark Empire, Palpatine used clones to prolong his life by infusing those new bodies with his spirit and power. As Lucasfilm and Disney have been so thoughtful as to not discard everything from the old Expanded Universe, it is entirely feasible that the film-makers would take that element from Dark Empire and apply it here. So, what about Supreme Leader Snoke? As we all know, Snoke was killed in the last film by Kylo Ren, leaving him in charge of the First Order. Or so we thought. If Snoke was not a clone of Palpatine, he was most certainly just a puppet. Palpatine was a puppeteer, doing his own dirty work from the shadows, so it makes sense that the rise of the First Order was Palpatine’s plan from the beginning. He probably saw his own death coming and planned for it. So, the last two movies were essentially distracting the Resistance and the audience from Palpatine’s return to power.
So, if the Emperor is coming back, where does that leave Kylo Ren? As we all know, Kylo killed Snoke to take his spot. Do we honestly expect Palpatine to just let Kylo Ren run the First Order? Oh, no. Darth Sidious does not share power and will eliminate any force that could oppose him, which puts Ben Solo at serious risk. This could possibly lead into the title’s meaning: The Rise of Skywalker. What if Kylo Ren, in a bid to redeem himself for the terrible things that he’s done, finally embraces the light side of the Skywalker bloodline? Also, are we finally going to find out who Rey is, or is she just someone that the Force has chosen to balance things out? In The Last Jedi, we see a connection of sorts between Rey and Ben, one light and one dark. They are two sides of the same coin, so it may make sense that they would team up again to destroy Palpatine once and for all. Luke is dead so it falls on the last of the Skywalkers, Ben, to really bring balance back to the Force.
So…what about everybody else in the film? What role will Leia play in The Rise of Skywalker? It’s hard to say at this point, things had to be re-written when Carrie Fisher passed away. This film was initially going to have a focus on Leia and her relationship with Ben, from what I remember. Poe Dameron is still a pilot, but he’s probably been re-promoted to Commander or has become a general after The Last Jedi. We know that Episode IX takes place a few years after the events of The Last Jedi, so things will have changed. Rey has most likely become a Jedi in her own way, while Finn will take a more prominent role in the Resistance, committing himself fully to the cause. General Hux is probably still the scheming and slimy dirt-bag he’s always been. The one’s that I want to see are the Knights of Ren, which were referenced only in Episode VII. Lando Calrissian is obviously making a big comeback as one of the allies that the Resistance is seeking.
For a teaser trailer, this one had quite a bit of stuff in it, but it only gave us a small glimpse at what’s to come just to get people talking and asking questions. Believe me, there are a lot of questions that the trailer raised that the final film will have to answer. There has to be answers, especially concerning the last two movies and the fact that The Rise of Skywalker is the final film in the Skywalker story-line. This is a film that has to connect all three trilogies and I hope it does. As a huge fan of Star Wars, I’m getting more and more excited for this one. People are going to be understandably cautious after The Last Jedi and Solo split audiences down the middle. So, yeah, I’m hopeful that this will be amazing and that it will be the perfect send-off for those involved, especially Carrie Fisher and her character. December 20th, fellow Jedi and Sith Lords, mark your calendars. This will be a December to remember.