Star Wars Trailer Episode 9: The Star of Underwater Death, Explained

There is a striking image at the end of the Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker Trailer: The Black Star, broken and defeated, rises from an ocean. But what does the death star do there? Maybe we could understand that, thanks to the complicated long false starts that eventually became the force awakens.

At least as early as May 2011, George Lucas was planning to retire. In June 2012, he hired Kathleen Kennedy, a seven-time Oscar-nominated producer and director, as co-chair of Lucasfilm. They began to tidy up Lucasfilm's house.

Although this announcement was not announced until November 2012, the Lucasfilm Co-Chairs hired screenwriter Michael Arndt prior to the Disney sale and invited Lawrence Kasdan (screenwriter for The adventurers of the lost arch, The empire counter-attack, Return of the jedi and co-author of Solo: A story of Star Wars) as a consultant.

In October 2012, George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney. The press release announcing the sale indicated that Lucas would play "as a creative consultant".

In January 2013, three months after the sale, Lucas met people working on the new films, according to Bloomberg. He "provided his Episode VII treatment to the creative team of the project ", according to The art of Star Wars: The awakening of strength.

Then things went bad, at least between Lucas and Lucasfilm.

We do not know exactly what caused the separation of George Lucas and his former company, but January 2013 seems to be a point of inflection. Three important events occurred this month: Lucasfilm announced that J. J. Abrams would lead Episode VII, Lucas shared his treatment and producer Simon Kinberg (Star Wars: The rebels) and Kasdan started working with Arndt as consultants, according to The art of Star Wars: The awakening of the force.

At some point (probably after Lucasfilm's meeting with Lucas in January 2013), Lucasfilm decided to quit Lucas's treatment. Arndt was now responsible for writing the Episode VII story.

In the months that followed, Arndt changed the story. Instead that Luke trains a new hero and leaves this dark and emotional place, Luke's search sparked the plot. And at some point, someone visited an ancient relic of Star Wars.

Except that things did not work with Arndt either.

In October 2013, Lucasfilm announced that Arndt would no longer write the script. As Episode VII co-author and director J.J. Abrams told Empire, Arndt "needed 18 months more than anyone else had registered."

After Arndt's departure, Lucasfilm put Kasdan and Abrams in a pen Episode VIIThe scenario. At a meeting in mid-December 2013, they presented their version of the Episode VII story. Shortly after, they made their first draft. And their story also departs from Arndt's. (Even though Arndt has always received a writer's credit.)

But what does this have to do with the death star in the Episode IX trailer? Maybe everything. Maybe the work that Arndt has survived in Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker.

Shortly after the force awakensLiberation, Arndt and J.J. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly innovative ideas that were not incorporated into the film. Among them:

The good news for Abrams was that he had the opportunity Star wars movie. The bad news was that his toy box would not include a real Luke Skywalker figure. Some of the film's first MacGuffins – the driving element of a movie's plot – were a search for the remains of Darth Vader or a search on the underwater wreckage of the second death star so to recover a key element of the history of sacred Jedi sites in the world. galaxy.

And on page 34 of The art of Star Wars: The awakening of the force, a concept illustration shows this in detail.

Abrams Books via Polygon

The caption is entitled "Death Star trench underwater". This is a quote from Star Wars artist, Iain McCaig, which reads as follows:

"So, when the adventure is over, Kira [who’d later become Rey] finds a hidden card inside the emperor's tower from the second death star. And the map shows where the Jedi are and where Luke is hiding.

Of course, they found Luke differently the force awakens. This part of the story has changed. Nobody is looking for the last Jedi anymore. But what are Chewbacca's, BB-8's, D-O's, C-3PO's, Rey's, Poe's and Finn's looking for, if they have not fallen on the ultimate weapon of mbadive destruction of the Empire?

Lucasfilm via Polygon

If it's the Death Star, it's probably the second of Return of the jedi. (The one of New hope explode.) It is not out of the question to think that she fell to the ground around the forest of the moon of Endor.

And given the evil laughter we hear in the end, they could also look for Emperor Palpatine, who died at the hands of Darth Vader on the second death star. If no one has ever really disappeared (at least, according to today's trailer), why would not that apply to the good guys and the bad guys?

We will know when Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker will be in theaters on December 20, 2019. But today, a death star is rotting in the water. At the end of the trailer, the emperor laughs maniacally. Maybe in Star Wars, no good idea has really disappeared either.