Don’t worry, there are going to be three Deathstars in this one!
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But at the same time Kylo returning to the light and assuming the mantle of Skywalker also seems too on the nose (but given my distaste for JJ’s inability to deliver a solid third act I would not ne surprised)
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Does this mean anything challenging or original that made the last jedi so interesting to watch has been sanded down and the edges dulled because some very vocal, miffed fans made such a stink the moment luke threw away his saber?
Lando! 
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I for one am still not willing to give Abrams any benefit of the doubt after Star Trek Into Darkness.
I wouldn’t put it past him to pull some cack-handed measure like having Palpatine’s ghost cryogenically frozen in a space-torpedo.
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As someone who also adores TLJ (it’s my favorite main series film at this point), I would say my expectations are high and my hopes are middling. Last Jedi is going to be a hard act to follow, and if anything I’m worried that the outlandishly vocal minority of people who drove the backlash against it will mean that Rian’s attempts to push the franchise into Actually New Things is going to be severely blunted (Death Star ruins and Palpatine’s cackling do not instill me with large amounts of confidence here).
Patrick H. Willems has a video about TLJ wherein he explains what it did to his conception of what the future of Star Wars could be, and he makes the same point I want to, but far more eloquently, so I’ve cued it up here:
(should start at 14:31, and the point ends at 16:04)
So for Episode IX’s trailer to loudly declare that “the saga comes to an end” kind of files in the face of that in ways I find slightly frustrating.
All of that having been said, I’m still really excited about this movie, because I love Star Wars, even the parts of it that aren’t super good (well, maybe not the holiday special…). I just hope it doesn’t retreat to being super safe because there’s a small percentage of fans who can’t stand new things so much that they do stupid shit like demand that Disney strike Episode 8 from canon and drive Kelly Marie Tran off of Twitter for being… an Asian-American woman in a Star Wars film?
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Yep, it’s a Star Wars movie! (“George! You can type this shit, but you sure can’t say it!”)
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That’s the big thing I’m most curious to see: whether the various twists, reveals, and revelations in TLJ are conveniently retconned away or if this feels like a natural progression. For all of JJ Abrams’ insistence that this was all preplanned and that he was making the film he’d always wanted to make, he seems awfully prone to listening to fans… and there were some ugly, nasty, awful “fans” yelling really loudly.
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I’m guessing that Palpatine made a clone of Darth Vader - a female clone - and Rey is actually a Skywalker. But she’s not Luke or Leia’s kid. That’s why they are looking for a piece of the death star - to confirm it had clones onboard.
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In related news, the Star Wars Twitter account is running a poll where an awful lot of people seem pretty intent on telling on themselves…
It’s always that ~30% you’ve gotta watch out for, no matter where you go, apparently.
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What’s Trump’s approval rate again?
He did explode, mind.
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To be fair, he also came back in the Extended Universe Legends stuff, too. More than once, IIRC.
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i’m excited by the theory that “Skywalker” refers to the name of a new order, a middle path between dark and light, that Rey founds, and she takes the name “Skywalker” not because she’s related to Luke, but in deference to him as her teacher – sort of like “Rey from Skywalker.” that really works for me.
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To do a buddy cop team-up with Boba Fett?
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This is basically my theory too.
Everyone else is spouting off their guesses/hopes, so here’s mine:
– Ben is the Skywalker in the subtitle because…he is
– Rey will find out she’s a Palpatine when…
– …she enters the Death Star shrapnel we see, she encounters the Emperor’s force ghost
– Lando gets cool all over everything
– the third act heavily involves a giant red ball, because Abrams
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You are totally correct. Still awesome.
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This is my hope, as well. Odds are good that we’ll see the Knights of Ren (Kylo’s bodyguard buddies who quit the Academy with him and got cool helmets, too) and Luke made it pretty clear in the last movie that it’s The Force that matters, not an ancient order like The Jedi that has a history of fucking up royally. Rey creating her own new order as his legacy would be a great cap to the saga.
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Writer Ken Jennings nailed that bit on Kylo Ren’s helmet over a year ago. Granted, I think he was joking at the time.
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I’m thinking that she, in a very literal way, will be the Skywalker “of the title” and of that alone. By which I mean I think she’s taking the name for herself, by choosing to continue Luke’s legacy and to remake the Jedi Order into something new, despite having absolutely no family connection to him whatsoever.
Yeesh. The Empire was oppressive and murderous, but they at least had an appearance of legitimacy as the continuation of the Galactic Republic, plus a “law and order!” pitch that had to be pretty appealing in a galaxy that had been torn apart by the first major interstellar war in a long time, plus the corruption and governmental sclerosis of the pre-Clone Wars period.
By which I mean, I can see people supporting the Empire for non-awful reasons, even if they’re ultimately wrong about it. But the New Order pretty much has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
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