‘Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise Of Skywalker’ Villain Revealed In New Teaser
During the 2019 Star Wars Celebration event, the title and teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode 9 have finally been revealed as Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. The ending of the teaser, also released on the official Star Wars Twitter account, heavily implies that the main villain of this new trilogy is none other than Emperor Palpatine.
The new Star Wars trilogy was started by director J.J. Abrams with The Force Awakens in 2015. The movie introduced many new characters and began a new adventure for old and new fans. The sequel came with The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson. Johnson took the story in a new angle as he subverted many of the set up done by Abrams in the previous film. One of those misdirects was killing off the character that audiences thought to be the main villain of the new trilogy, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis).
The death of Snoke was a shock to fans, as the character was seemingly the main villain of the new trilogy. By the end of The Last Jedi, it was thought that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) had now evolved into the main threat of the series. However, the release of The Rise Of Skywalker teaser reveals who the ultimate main bad guy of the franchise could be.
The teaser is very light and gives more of an overarching impression of where the new movie will go, rather than provide specific plot details. The teaser features many scenes with CGI text over a black screen, with a voice-over narration by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) himself. The atmosphere very much feels like the end of a trilogy, with talk of a legend, and how Rey (Daisy Ridley) has generations of Jedi now residing within her. But it’s the end of the teaser that is of supreme significance.
The end of the teaser for The Rise Of Skywalker sees Rey, Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) on a mountain top, looking out into what looks like the ruins of a Death Star. The voice over says ‘”No one’s ever truly gone” as the scene cuts to black and we hear the very familiar laughter of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
Every generation has a legend. Watch the brand-new teaser for Star Wars: #EpisodeIX. pic.twitter.com/fWMS13ekdZ
— Star Wars | #TheMandalorian is Now Streaming (@starwars) April 12, 2019
Palpatine was the overarching villain of the entire Star Wars saga. He was first introduced in the original trilogy as the Emperor and Darth Vader’s Sith Master. Palpatine was killed by Vader in the Return Of The Jedi. The prequel trilogy saw the origin story of how a mild-mannered Sheev Palpatine, a Senator from Naboo, manipulated the Jedi and the Republic in secret as Darth Sidious, and later declared himself emperor.
But the new trilogy has been absent of any reference or implication of the emperor. So it should be interesting to see how he ties into the events of this trilogy in the end.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker releases on December 20.
