The Star Wars Saga’s End Begins in Stirring New Rise of Skywalker Special Look

Movies News Star Wars
The Star Wars Saga’s End Begins in Stirring New Rise of Skywalker Special Look

Disney took over the internet airwaves this past weekend, launching salvo after salvo of announcements from the starship that is their biennial D23 Expo, and one particularly powerful proton torpedo has finally impacted the worldwide web this Monday morning: New footage from J.J. Abrams’ Skywalker Saga-concluding ninth Star Wars episode The Rise of Skywalker that was shown at the Expo has now launched online.

The clip’s extended intro emphasizes The Rise of Skywalker’s status as the capper on a decades-long adventure, looking back on the sci-fi franchise’s beginnings and retracing key moments across the eight episodes leading up to Abrams’ forthcoming finale. “We’ve passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now,” an elder Luke Skywalker counsels in voiceover, adding portentously, “But this is your fight.”

From there, focus shifts to previously unseen footage of Rey’s new generation of heroes, our protagonists in the newly christened Age of Resistance. We see the staging of an epic space battle, faces both familiar and fresh, explosive interplanetary action and a climactic showdown between Rey and Kylo Ren—a final symbolic struggle between good and evil. “Your journey nears its end,” croaks the Emperor, whose malicious presence looms large (quite literally, on the film’s new poster) over The Rise of Skywalker. The money shot is a dark future we can only hope won’t actually come to pass: Daisy Ridley’s Rey wielding a Darth Maul-like, double-bladed red lightsaber, which is about as evil as Jedi weaponry gets in the Star Wars universe.

Come Dec. 20, we’ll be able to experience the Skywalker Saga’s epic conclusion for ourselves. But make no mistake: However this film ends, the Star Wars themselves won’t stop raging anytime soon—not by a long shot.

Watch the special look and see The Rise of Skywalker’s new poster below.

Share Tweet Submit Pin