Daisy Ridley wields a deadly red lightsaber in new Star Wars teaser
But will Rey turn to the Dark Side in the Rise of Skywalker?
After being debuted at Disney’s D23 celebration earlier in the week, a new teaser has arrived online for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and it’s full of exciting new reveals from the eagerly-awaited Episode IX.
After a montage of clips from earlier Star Wars films, the new footage includes our heroes (including Daisy Ridley’s Rey, Oscar Isaac’s Poe and John Boyega’s Finn) visiting an alien festival, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey battling on the ruins of the second Death Star on Endor, some nifty lightsaber tricks and, perhaps most poignantly, an appearance by the late Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia.
But by far the biggest moment (already described by D23 attendees last week) appears at the end of the new footage, as the returning Emperor (Ian McDiarmuid) notes that “Your journey…nears its end,” and the scene cuts to Rey wearing a menacing dark hood.
In her hands? A brand-new, parallel-blade red lightsaber, which she then resets to a long, double-bladed staff like the iconic weapon wielded by Darth Maul in the prequels.
Famously, the red-bladed lightsaber is almost exclusively wielded by Dark Side users (something about the lightsaber’s coloured Kyber crystal being corrupted, for recently-invented canon fans) – so does this, and her new fashion sense mean that the Emperor has turned Rey to evil after all?
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see until The Rise of Skywalker is released this Christmas before we find out the truth, even if one fact already seems assured.
That new lightsaber is going to be THE toy this December.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is released in UK cinemas on the 19th December
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
