What You’ll See in the Second Trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is so close, we can almost taste it. And yet, Disney has remained intensely tight-lipped about the upcoming middle saga of the sequel trilogy. All we’ve officially received is the initial teaser trailer and the sizzle reel, with a second full trailer yet to be released. Now that we’re nearly two months until opening night, isn’t it about time we get something new?

The answer to that question is, yes, it is. We dug into the tidbits and news surrounding the second The Last Jedi trailer, including when and where, exactly, it will be released. It could be coming as soon as October!

Here is everything that we’ve heard about the upcoming trailer for The Last Jedi.

Featuring Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker stands in a brown cloth in front of a brick wall as he looks towards the side.
The star of the film | Lucasfilm

The sequel trilogy is all about the new characters: Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, Snoke, and even BB-8. The old characters are there to help us transition the series along. But that shouldn’t overshadow just how much The Last Jedi really is about Luke Skywalker. They spent the entirety of Star Wars: The Force Awakens teasing the return of Luke, only to give him about a minute of screen time right before the credits. Seriously, Luke didn’t even have a single line.

Heading into The Last Jedi, Disney knows the gravity of this character for the franchise. He’s going to be featured prominently in the movie, and the release of the first trailer really bore that out. Luke was seen frequently, even narrating the trailer and delivering his bone-chilling line, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”

It sounds like the next trailer will again prominently feature Luke over all other characters. We don’t yet know what that means outside of a few moments that we’ll go over soon, but expect that what you see will knock your socks off. Apparently, John Williams came up with an original track specifically for this trailer that was designed to keep fans on the edge of their seat.

The Battle of Crait

A building in the distance is on fire as two characters watch from afar among piles of rubble.
Fans are expecting incredible battle scenes. | Lucasfilm

According to Mike Zeroh, a YouTuber that often gets inside details on Star Wars, there are a few descriptions of things we will see specifically in the next trailer. The first such moment comes from Crait, the dusty white planet from the first trailer where speeders are seen kicking up dark red dust. We’ll see a major battle taking place, with Resistance speeders attacking First Order AT-M6’s. The trailer will feature an AT-M6 stepping on a speeder, with red dust flying everywhere.

Sound familiar? It’s eerily similar to the battle on Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which could mean either good or bad things for The Last Jedi. While Empire Strikes Back is widely considered to be the best of all the Star Wars films, the biggest critique of The Force Awakens was that it followed the outline of Star Wars: A New Hope just a little too closely. We definitely don’t need another repeat.

Luke and Rey on Ahch-To

Rey walks alongside a mountain overlooking an ocean.
What is Luke teaching Rey in training? | Lucasfilm

The trailer will reportedly feature several moments surrounding Luke and Rey, the first of which involves the two facing one another while standing underneath the Millennium Falcon. Later, the pair are seen walking through a cave together. Finally, there will be more footage of Rey holding the famous blue Skywalker lightsaber and training.

There are a couple points of interest here. The first regards the Millennium Falcon, which ties Luke to his past. There is certain to be an emotional moment in the movie where he’s reunited with Chewbacca and R2-D2, and when he either learns of the death of Han Solo or reveals that he felt it through the Force.

The other part that is particularly tantalizing is Luke and Rey in the cave. This seems like a major moment for Rey’s training — or development, if that’s a better word for it — in the Force. Considering that this island is where the very first Jedi Temple is located, Luke could be guiding her to some major intellectual reveal.

Finn and Rose at Canto Bight

Finn and Rose stand in front of each other while at Canto Bright.
The trailer will have an interesting moment with Finn and Rose. | Lucasfilm

The next moment described in the trailer is the ocean just outside the casino city of Canto Bight, followed by an action sequence that sees blasters being fired and Finn and new character Rose Tico running away from danger.

We caught our first glimpse of Finn in the original teaser trailer, still asleep inside a suit that is intended to help heal his wounds from his battle with Kylo Ren. Later, in the sizzle reel, we get a shot of Finn with Rose, and both characters are wearing First Order outfits. This appears to be at Canto Bight, where the characters will go undercover to liberate DJ (played by Benicio Del Toro) from a prison cell.

Given the effort as Disney has put into marketing and teasing the casino at Canto Bight, it would seem to have an important role in the plot of The Last Jedi. We know for sure that Finn and Rose will be there, as will DJ. If we were to draw some sort of comparison, could Canto Bight be the Cloud City of The Last Jedi?

Poe Dameron with Leia Organa

Poe Dameron and BB-8 running through a hallway.
Poe Dameron | Lucasfilm

In the upcoming trailer, we’ll get a brief shot of Poe Dameron and General Leia Organa at what looks like some sort of command station. That description is pretty similar to what we saw in the teaser trailer, where we get the very back of Leia while Rey describes “the light.”

The elephant in the room for The Last Jedi will unfortunately be the way that Leia is used. She didn’t get a ton of screen time in The Force Awakens, save for some heavy involvement in the plot during the third act. With the untimely passing of Carrie Fisher, Disney has confirmed that they will wrap Leia’s story in Episode VIII. But how? It seems almost unavoidable that they’ll have to kill the character off, if Leia isn’t to return in Episode IX.

As for Poe, he was also absent for a large portion of The Force Awakens. We got familiar with him in the first act, right up through the escape from the Star Destroyer and crash landing on Jakku. He doesn’t reappear until right as the third act begins, when he plays a major role in the destruction of Starkiller Base. What will The Last Jedi have in store for the best pilot in the Resistance?

Will we see Snoke?

Supreme Leader Snoke, half-lit, sits in a large chair, looking down at the camera
Supreme Leader Snoke | Lucasfilm

There is no mention of Supreme Leader Snoke in the trailer descriptions, which is telling of how they’re handling him, if anything. Snoke has yet to appear in any of the marketing for The Last Jedi, save for the toy line that revealed him to have pink-tinted skin and not the previously assumed pale white skin. For a character that the franchise claims is not a surprise return from the past (such as Darth Maul, Mace Windu, or any of the other insane rumors), they’re doing a very good job clouding him in mystery.

The best bet is that Snoke will not appear in the second trailer for The Last Jedi. Director Rian Johnson has promised plenty of twists and turns in the movie, and that has to be heavily related to Snoke and how he relates to Luke, Leia, and the rest of the main characters. Is he really a completely new character, or is Snoke actually someone from the past? Could he still be Darth Plagueis? Disney is making sure that we wait to find out.

Rumors about the trailer date

Space ships seen cruising past a planet in space.
The most awaited trailer of the year | Lucasfilm

After all these juicy details, you simply can’t wait to find out when this trailer will finally appear and make all of our lives meaningful again, can you? While it’s unconfirmed, the rumor afoot is that the second trailer will drop during halftime of the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears Monday Night Football matchup. That game will air on ESPN on Oct. 9, 2017 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

Usually when a trailer is scheduled to debut on television, it will also drop on the internet a few hours before. So if you’re not planning to watch the halftime festivities and analysis of the Vikings and Bears, fear not! You’ll likely find it somewhere else too.

Unlike with how Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was handled, with several new looks in teases being released close to opening night for the movie, it appears that the second trailer will be the last thing we get for The Last Jedi. Will it be enough to hold us over until Dec. 16? It’s hard to get more excited than we are right now.

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