Expect a Star Wars: Episode IX Trailer in April

The safest bet on when to expect your first Star Wars: Episode IX trailer is at the Star Wars Celebration. The annual celebration kicks off on April 11 and runs through April 15. It has just been confirmed that director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy will be in attendance on a panel. There will also be “plenty of surprises and special guests.” When better to debut the trailer then during this event? Perhaps it’ll only be a teaser. Or, perhaps they’ll eschew showing us anything and at least tell us the title. They’ll definitely deliver something. We think that something is going to include actual footage of the film. Here’s why.

The timing works perfectly for Disney. The celebration occurs in mid-April. The Russo Brothers’ epic Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26. If Disney delivers a new Episode IX trailer at the Star Wars Celebration, they’ll have it ready for theaters to play before Endgame. What better way to tease the conclusion to the Skywalker Saga then by tying it the other biggest film release of the year? Plus, as Collider points out, Disney wouldn’t risk trying to keep the trailer or teaser limited to the folks at the celebration when the footage could easily leak out.

We know next to nothing about Episode IX. We can go on where we left off in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, with the Resistance on the run and the First Order in a position to wipe them out for good. Abrams’ script, co-written with Oscar-winning scribe Chris Terrio, has been kept under lock and key. (A lock and key worthy of Fort Knox). Whatever footage we might see during the Star Wars Celebration will essentially be the very first bits of information we have on the story.

Star Wars: Episode IX is due in theaters on December 20.

Featured image: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac on the set of ‘Star Wars: Episode IX.’ Courtesy J.J. Abrams/Walt Disney Studios.