The trailer for the next Star Wars movie is here, and it has fans understandably excited about the film's release this December. However, there are two things in the trailer that have some worried about the implications for the future for Star Wars.
The trailer itself is focused almost solely on Rey with her lightsaber, eventually leaping into the air to attack an oncoming ship. After that, there are quick shots of most of the cast members from the third trilogy before the title rises onto the screen: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
That is where the problem lies. What does the title mean, and could the old rumors kick up again that Rey is, in fact, a Skywalker?
Rey as a Solo?
When Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters, Rey turned into the next big Jedi for the franchise. Many fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe immediately thought of the books and wondered if Rey was Han Solo and Princess Leia's daughter.
It would go a long way to explain her connection with Kylo Ren, who is Han and Leia's son. This would tie into the stories from the books of Jacen and Jaina, the twin children of the two Rebel fighters. In the books, the son Jacen turns to the Dark Side and becomes the Sith Lord Darth Caedus while Jaina becomes a Jedi warrior. The names change but the stories stay the same.
Could Han and Leia have placed Rey in a new home to protect her from the possibility there was darkness in their son? Luke Skywalker said he wanted to help Kylo Ren, but failed. Could he have foreseen the tragedies that befell the son of Han and Leia?
The Last Jedi Changed Things
There was a huge theme in The Last Jedi that polarized fans. Not once was it hinted in the second movie that Rey was the child of Han and Leia, although Leia did greet her warmly in that film. Instead, Rian Johnson did something very different.
He showed -- as J.J. Abrams hinted at in The Force Awakens -- that Rey could become a Jedi despite having no "royal blood." Luke Skywalker was a farmer on Tatooine when he set out to become a Jedi Knight, but his father was the great Anakin Skywalker. He was born into it. Rey, on the other hand, was a nobody -- a junker living on a desolate planet.
Then, with The Last Jedi, there was a moment where the film moved to the planet of Cantonica and the casino city of Canto Bight. This was a destination for the wealthy, which in many cases meant weapon's dealers. They also had slaves on this planet, people who were just like Rey -- poor, downtrodden and forgotten.
There was an important scene after Rose and Finn escaped the planet that showed a young slave boy watching them leave. The shot hints that even such a young boy, a slave to a city for the uber rich and morally bereft, could rise up and maybe one day become a Jedi. He had hope, maybe for the first time in his life.
Rey the Skywalker Could Ruin That
If Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker fulfills what it teases in that trailer with a butt-kicking Rey coming from the bloodline of the Skywalker family, it ruins everything that Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi.
There were a lot of very vocal fans who hated The Last Jedi. Many hated the fact that there were strong women in the Star Wars Universe. Others hated diversity in Star Wars. There were still more who hated the fact that Rey seemed to have it easy when becoming a Jedi, despite the fact she followed the same footsteps and path Luke Skywalker did before her. Just like Luke, she sought out a Jedi master for training, left early and then her master died, with Luke taking on the role of Yoda in the new trilogy.
However, the one road Star Wars shouldn't follow is to make Rey a Skywalker, just as the original trilogy revealed the twist that Luke and Darth Vader were related as father and son.
If Rey is a Skywalker, then it proves she "deserves" to be a Jedi Knight and strips the entire trilogy of the message that anyone can step into the role. It doesn't have to be the elite who get to be Jedis while the poor and downtrodden have no hope of rising above their place in society. The hope given to those kids on Cantonica is stripped instantly if Rey becomes a Skywalker.
The beauty of the new trilogy is that it took what was loved in the original and subverted it. The smuggler Han Solo became the former Stormtrooper Finn. The plucky Luke Skywalker became the fierce Rey. The dominating Darth Vader becomes the unsure Kylo Ren. The idea of Luke as the heir to Vader being copied, forcing Rey into the position of yet another Skywalker, is taking the easy way out.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker needs to give hope to the future of its ever-growing universe. It doesn't need yet another Skywalker to do that.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film arrives Dec. 20.