Another day, another new promo for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This one doesn’t feature as much fresh footage as the teaser that arrived yesterday, but it does give us our first look at a thrilling set piece that we haven’t glimpsed before: our heroes piloting the Millennium Falcon past a terrifying gigantic space monster.
The rest of the 60-second promo is made up of footage and voice clips that we’re well used to by now, but are still eager to see in their proper context come next month. There’s Rey hugging Leia, Luke telling Rey that “confronting fear is the destiny of the Jedi,” Rey then confronting what appears to be Emperor Palpatine on a huge throne, Rey and Kylo Ren’s big lightsaber battle in the middle of a stormy ocean, and don’t forget C-3PO taking one last look at his friends.
And then there’s the new sliver of material. Speeding through a green-tinted sky, the Falcon – with Poe at the helm – is caught between a rock and a hard place, with two TIE Fighters on its tail and a shrieking, hungry-looking beast in front of it. “Last shot, maybe forever,” Poe cries as he takes a stab at flying past the creature. No doubt the symbolism of closing the trailer with this line isn’t lost on you, what with this being the conclusion of both the Sequel Trilogy and the Skywalker saga as a whole.
Director J.J. Abrams has previously promised that the trailers have not given everything away and there are still some major action scenes in the movie that haven’t been revealed so far – and here’s one of them. Presumably, though, there are still lots of other big surprises waiting when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally hits theaters from December 20th.