Remember Never to Believe What You See in a JJ Abrams Trailer with New ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Teaser

J.J. Abrams is a master bullshit artist, peddling in images and comments meant to bewilder a fan base and keep them on their toes when they finally get to see the finished product. Abrams revels in making you think his film is going to be one thing, only for it to turn out to be something completely different. He insisted Khan was not the villain of Into Darkness until, oops, turns out he really was.

All of this is to say that nothing you see nor hear in the above teaser for December's Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker should lead you to believe it's being presented in a straight forward manner. You figure Luke's voiceover is directed at Rey, but it'll probably be him talking to Kylo Ren. You think the Emperor is talking to Rey, but he's also probably talking to someone else. Basically anything you think is happening that correlates with Rey in any way is probably a bunch of bullshit misdirection.

Anyways, Rey is not turning to the dark side, this is more than likely some sort of vision or flash-forward or something. It's going to be her version of Luke seeing his face in the Vader mask on Dagobah. It's a cool thing to put in a trailer, but ultimately not to be taken at face value. In fact, don't take anything Abrams shows you or says to you prior to the film's release at face value.

If you can manage to cut through all of that, I think you might be left actually anticipating the film. Skywalker rises on December 20.