With the release of The Rise of Skywalker, the Star Wars era that began with 2015’s The Force Awakens finally comes to a close, but according to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger, the franchise still has a busy future ahead of it.
In the lead-up to the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, director J.J. Abrams offered repeated hints that his film was going to serve as a “course correction” of sorts in the wake of 2017’s divisive The Last Jedi, and sure enough, once the Skywalker Saga finale reached theaters, the movie was every bit as apologetic as fans either dreaded or hoped.
Though news from the MCU has been a little slow as of late, Marvel fans are finding plenty to appreciate in a recent Twitter exchange between War Machine actor Don Cheadle and Brie Larson of Captain Marvel fame.
The Rise of Skywalker may not be doing quite as well at the box office as many of us would’ve predicted this time last year, but the crowds it’s drawing in would still be pretty enviable by the standards of most non-Star Wars movies.
Having already confirmed the return of Emperor Palpatine in the film’s first trailer, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wastes no time bringing the villain back into the fold, establishing his connection to the larger Sequel Trilogy in the movie’s opening minutes. But as J.J. Abrams’ latest flick charges forward with its exceedingly busy plot, one important question remains largely unaddressed: How exactly is Palpatine back?
In all the months of marketing for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, no moment left a bigger impression or inspired more conversation than the final seconds of the film’s first trailer, when some familiar laughter confirmed the return of Emperor Palpatine.
Though Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker certainly hasn’t been to everyone’s taste, it’s evident that there are a good few fans out there who appreciated J.J. Abrams’ Sequel Trilogy finale, many of whom have now taken to Twitter to thank the director for his contributions to the Skywalker Saga.
It’s been almost two months now since filming began for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and in all that time, we’ve been getting a steady stream of photos from the set of the upcoming Disney Plus series.
J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker is packed with more callbacks and fan-pleasing references than any other Star Wars movie to date, though some are a little subtler than others. And as we delve into the film’s brief nod to one of the most famous moments from The Empire Strikes Back, be warned that some major spoilers lie ahead.
A couple of weeks ago, when a new promotional clip for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker made its way online, you may have noticed a theory making the rounds that Emperor Palpatine’s new lair features a statue of Darth Nihilus, the malevolent “Lord of Hunger” who made his franchise debut in 2004’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.
