On Friday April 14th, I set my iPad up with the live stream of Star Wars Celebration in time for the 11am The Last Jedi trailer. Josh Gad hosted Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, newcomer Kelly Marie Tran, and finally, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.
After nearly an hour of Q&A, which included some teases about Kelly Marie Tran’s new role, as well as some speculation that Finn may not want to be part of the resistance after the wounds he suffers at the hands of Kylo Ren, Johnson finally showed the audience what they had been waiting for.
The teaser poster.
Then he asked them if they wanted to see a trailer. Of course the crowd erupted, and the screen went black.
The Last Jedi – Space
The screen fades up from a shot of stars in space to a dissolve to a bunch of darkly lit rocks.
The Last Jedi – Rey
The music hits a crescendo as Rey jumps into the frame, very similar to the shock of seeing Finn for the first time in The Force Awakens.
The Last Jedi – Jedi Island
Luke’s voice narrates the entire trailer beginning with: “Breathe, just breathe” – as a shot of what I am calling “Jedi Island” comes into focus, and an image of Rey standing at an opening fades from black.
The Last Jedi – Rey Watch
The Last Jedi – Rey Force
“Now, reach out.” as Rey begins to levitate small rocks (similar to how a Jedi assembles a lightsaber).
“What do you see?”
The Last Jedi – Leia
As an image of General Leia Organa at a galactic map comes up, Rey’s voice says “Light”.
The Last Jedi – Kylo’s Mask
“Darkness”, she continues as a smouldering shot of Kylo Ren’s shattered mask is shown.
The Last Jedi – Jedi Symbol
The music crescendos as a shot of books being illuminated by a ray of sunshine fades to a paper with the Jedi symbol on it, and what looks like Rey’s hand touching the paper before she says “The balance.”
The Last Jedi – Jedi Practice
Luke returns to he narration saying “It’s so much bigger.”, as two figures are silhouetted on Jedi Island, with the one that appears to be Rey practicing with a green lightsaber.
The Last Jedi – Crait
A strange speeder like looking ship is shown crashing and recovering on the planet of Crait (a former Rebel stronghold), which spouts up red plumes of iron rich sand over white salt deposits (according to director Rian Johnson).
The Last Jedi – Finn
A shot of Finn in some sort of medical pod as he recovers from his wounds at the hands of Kylo Ren.
The Last Jedi – Poe BB8
Poe Dameron and BB8 running through the corridors as they head towards Poe’s Xwing Black Leader, which explodes inside the hanger.
The Last Jedi – Black Leader
The Last Jedi – Millennium Falcon
A Tie Fighter explodes as the Millennium Falcon comes into view being chased by more Tie Fighters.
The Last Jedi – Rey Running
Rey running, blue lightsaber extended.
The Last Jedi – Kylo Ren
Kylo Ren, helmetless but with a badassed scar on his left eye, stretching out his awesome lightsabre.
“I only know one truth.” Luke’s voiceover continues.
The Last Jedi – Luke and R2
Luke and R2D2 are now watching a burning building as Captain Phasma and a group of troopers stalk throught he burning wreckage.
The Last Jedi – Captain Phasma
The Last Jedi – Capital Fight
A ton of Rebellion capital ships are engaged in a massive dogfight with first order Tie fighters.
The screen fades to black as Luke says “It’s time for the Jedi…”
The Last Jedi – Luke Looks Back
The screen fades up on Luke looking out of a cave, finishing “…to end.”
Star Wars – The Last Jedi
This is a great teaser trailer, it tells us a ton about the movie without really telling us anything.
First, we get the greatest hits, we see that all of our favourites are back (although interestingly no sign of Chewie, General Hux or C3P0).
We’re also shown a couple of scenes that I think are from The Force Awakens. Rey running with Luke’s lightsaber looks like it’s from the forest fight in TFA. The scene of Luke and R2 watching the burning building was briefly shown in TFA.
Maybe this will show us what happened to the Jedi Luke was training between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and we’ll learn something about the Knights of Ren.
I also think the final line in the teaser is from the beginning of the film, when Luke decides he doesn’t want to train more Jedi, but of course plucky Rey will win him over, and he will start to help her explore her powers.
This really is a great teaser trailer and does exactly what you would hope a teaser would do…create anticipation for the next little does of information that we’ll likely get in a couple of months (maybe attached to Spider-Man Homecoming?).