There’s still more than half a year to go until Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker hits the big screen, wrapping up the sequel trilogy, concluding the tale of Rey and Kylo Ren – and bringing the beloved Skywalker saga to a close. Now, just over a month after we saw the film’s first trailer and learned its title at Star Wars Celebration, more details about Episode IX have emerged courtesy of the traditional Vanity Fair preview.
There’s all sorts of juicy info here – with one nugget in particular sure to get Star Wars fans talking: the Knights of Ren are back. Yes, Ben Solo’s buddies, teased in The Force Awakens and then never heard of again, are confirmed to appear in The Rise Of Skywalker. They’re described as “elite fearsome enforcers of Kylo Ren’s dark will”, now seen to don formidable armor and bear fearsome weapons – from spiked clubs, to giant space-machetes.
Elsewhere, it’s confirmed that the film picks up one year after the end of The Last Jedi, we learn the name of the desert planet from the trailer – it’s called Pasaana, with native aliens called the Aki-Aki – and discover that Richard E. Grant is going full-Cushing as a sour-faced First Order leader by the name of Allegiant General Pryde. The Rise Of Skywalker will also reveal more about the origins of the First Order, and how it was born out of the “complacent and politically stagnant” Republic in the wake of Return Of The Jedi. The feature also introduces Keri Russell as “masked scoundrel” Zorri Bliss – who will see some action on a snowy planet call Kijimi.
Head to Vanity Fair to see the new images – and join us in anticipating The Rise Of Skywalker, coming on 19 December.
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