The home video trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker includes HD footage of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Emperor Palpatine. Released in December of 2019, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy has thus far grossed $1.069 billion worldwide, a disappointing total given very high expectations for the saga-capping film.
Of course, every Star Wars release is met with a great deal of heated discussion, and such was also the case for Rise of Skywalker. Ultimately, critics rendered a negative verdict on the film, which currently holds a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest rated of all Star Wars movies (even below the maligned prequel film Attack of the Clones). With the movie’s somewhat underwhelming box office run now wrapped up, fans and critics will soon be able to experience the film again from the comfort of home as it comes out on digital and home video, and reassessment of J.J. Abrams’ controversial movie can then begin in earnest.
With the film indeed getting set to hit home formats, a new Rise of Skywalker trailer has been released that lets the cat out of the bag on many of the movie’s spoilers, including the returns of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Emperor Palpatine. See the clip in the space below (via Star Wars):
The return of Palpatine was of course teased ahead of the release of Rise of Skywalker, while the return of Luke, though it was kept a secret, was completely predictable given the way The Last Jedi ended. The big surprise was the return of Harrison Ford as Han Solo after the character was killed by Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens (much to the delight of Ford, who began lobbying for Solo to die even before Return of the Jedi was made). As shocked as fans were to see Ford’s Han again, Ford himself was even more surprised, and indeed originally thought Abrams was joking about the character returning to Star Wars for an encore.
Of course, the sequel trilogy was largely about the beloved original trilogy trio of Luke, Han and Leia taking one last curtain call before finally disappearing from screens forever. Sadly, Carrie Fisher’s passing after production of The Last Jedi ensured that Leia’s exit would not go as originally planned, though Abrams and company were able to cobble something together for Rise of Skywalker using outtakes from Force Awakens. Ultimately, many fans seemed rather unsatisfied by the final appearances of their favorite heroes, plus the evil Palpatine, in Rise of Skywalker and indeed a strong argument can be made that the nostalgic farewell angle was overplayed in the sequel trilogy altogether.
Any way you slice it, the Star Wars sequel trilogy is now complete, and the future of the movie franchise is up in the air as Disney and Lucasfilm direct their energies toward producing Star Wars content for Disney+, with the well-received The Mandalorian leading the way. Quite frankly, given how things went with the sequel trilogy, focusing on smaller stories for the small screen might in fact be the best way for Star Wars to live on. Fans wishing to enjoy the nostalgia of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at home will get their chance when the movie hits digital on March 17, 2020 and Blu-ray on March 31.
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Source: Star Wars
