Star Wars The Last Jedi Trailer Debut

As many expected, today at Star Wars Celebration The Last Jedi panel, the teaser trailer for the next installment in this legendary series was released, along with a pretty epic poster that pays tribute to past, present, and the future. If you haven’t seen the trailer, you can watch it below (as spoilers from the trailer will follow).

Regarding the trailer, as Screenfish writer Chris Utley says, less is more. We get a little of the training that Luke is putting Rey through, but it tells all we need to know about where the film is going and asks that burning question, what does The Last Jedi truly mean? Action-wise, there’s a little bit of The Empire Strikes Back feel as we can see that the resistance is under attack. They clearly will need a new base and it will be interesting to see how much different from The Empire Strikes Back this will be.

The part that stands out the most is in the trailer’s dialogue, seemingly a narration between Rey and Luke as part of her training. It’s clear she is meditating with the guidance of Luke, and when asked what she sees, she says “light, darkness, a balance,” followed by Luke saying, “It’s so much bigger.” After a montage of action, the trailer ends with Luke telling Rey that he only knows one truth: “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”

Is it time for the Jedi to end? Of course, the theories between now and Christmas will abound, but when you piece together the dialogue, Luke’s search of the first Jedi temple, the idea that it’s time for the Jedi to end, and his comment “It’s so much bigger,” it seems like the next evolution of the Force is taking place. For Rey and Luke to win, they need to be more than just Jedi. We previously got a feel of this much larger balance in Season 3, Episode 15 of Star Wars Clone Wars when Anakin subdued the son and daughter of the overlord (a planet and beings more powerful in the force than any other and in charge of keeping balance).  Anakin was to be the chosen one, the one to keep light and dark in balance, but he rejected that calling. It seems like Luke and Rey are heading to new levels in the Force, and to do so the Jedi–much like the Sith–can be no more.

So now we are left with many new questions. Obviously, we won’t know the answers until December 15, but there will be lots of interesting conversations until that day.

What say you? Tell us what you thought of the trailer and what your theories are!