Rey & Kylo Clash (and Maybe Team Up?) in Final Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer

The final Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer dropped, as promised, during Monday Night Football. We open with Rey (Daisy Ridley) on the run through a dense forest. A voiceover says: “It’s an instinct, a feeling…the Force brought us together.”

“People keep telling me they know me. No one does,” says Rey almost a minute into the trailer. The reply to this statement comes from, of course, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver); “But I do.” Folks? Reylo is real.

If you’re of the opinion that the less you know going into the 9th and final installment in the Skywalker Saga the better, than you can easily skip the new trailer. Yet for the rest of us—some of us write about this stuff for a living—there’s a lot here to dissect. One is a moment in which it appears that Rey and Kylo, as they briefly did during The Last Jedi, are fighting on the same side?

There are plenty of glorious shots. Take, for instance, the gorgeous but sinister glimpse of a squadron of TIE Fighters cruising over a glacial lake on an icy planet. Or General Palpatine’s gravelly voice saying “Long have I waited” over the shot of a seat of power that could make the Iron Throne blush. Hold on though, there’s more to Palpatine in the trailer, and more to suggest that Rey and Kylo really are destined for each other, in one way or another. “And now,” Palpatine practically hisses, “your coming together is your undoing.” Perhaps! But ask Supreme Leader Snoke what happens you get these two together!

We’ve got another glimpse of the epic lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo, more rain and heaving seas than we recall from any previous Star Wars film, and a bittersweet moment for everyone’s favorite fussy droid, C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels.)

Also, Finn (John Boyega) rides some kind of space stallion. There is not only that shot of Leia (the late Carrie Fisher) and Rey hugging, but Leia promises Rey, in a bit of duel voiceover with her brother Luke (Mark Hamill) that the Force will always be with her.

This is it, folks—this is the last trailer for the last film in the Skywalker Saga. Take it in. Perhaps you’ve already purchased your tickets. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker storms into theaters on December 20, 2019. The end of an era is upon us.

Featured image: Rey (Daisy Ridley) in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Courtesy Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios.