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Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Teaser Analysis

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, you’re probably fully aware that Disney’s Lucasfilm released a new teaser trailer for the upcoming Star Wars:The Last Jedi film; directed by Rian Johnson and due to be released later this year. Although Abrams may no longer be at the helm directing the newest installment of the Star Wars franchise but you can certainly see his hand in the trailer’s construction. Abrams is well known for his “mystery box” philosophy regarding the deliberate and careful use of mystery to captivate and hold the attention of an audience. A common criticism of this approach to storytelling is that although it is an effective maxim to create an interest in a story, using it to excess essentially leaves the story with little to no substance. It’s essentially what we get with this trailer which is heavy on the hints but light on the substance.

Knowing that, it is probably quite a futile exercise to try to form predictions from what we see in the trailer… BUT woe be to me to tell anyone that they shouldn’t buy themselves a ticket on the hype train so instead I’m going to join the fun and join in analyzing/dissecting the trailer. Below are two of my wildest and unsubstantiated conjectures I have regarding what might unfold in the film later this year:

  • Luke teaches Rey the ways of the force BUT rather than attempting to replicate the teachings of the jedi order which were handed down to him piece meal by Obi Wan and Yoda, he decides to try impart a less restrictive moral code. Effectively this means that the Jedi order as we know it is effectively bunk with Luke (the last jedi) but also means that the mistake of crushing a padawan under the excessive expectations of the code will not happen with Rey… also, she may end up being able to use powers traditionally associated with the dark side of the force (force lighting/choke anyone?).
  • Finn is shown in some sort of stasis capsule. Ostensibly we could assume that this is because he got injured in The Force Awakens as he gets pretty badly burned up by Kylo Rens lightsaber but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest he may actually end up captured by the First Order to try and motivate Rey to leave her training early. It’ll be a direct homage to what happens in The Empire Strikes Back and continue the pattern of the new films borrowing their story elements quite liberally from the original trilogy.

These are my literal two cent thoughts and I hope you enjoy them alongside a viewing of the new teaser. May the force be with you all, always.