8 Important Takeaways From The New Star Wars: The Last Jedi Trailer

At last, six months since the first trailer dropped, we now have our second look at Star Wars: The Last Jedi. With only a couple of months to go, you can bet that this trailer will open the floodgates for many more promos to come, before we finally get to see the long awaited Episode VIII in cinemas in December. Naturally, this is another fantastic preview that whets our appetite for what looks to be a hugely dramatic installment of the franchise. Now that the twinkly-eyed nostalgia of The Force Awakens is behind us, The Last Jedi is sure to take things in a new direction. If this trailer is any indication, it's going to be full of shocks, surprises and characters with ambiguous, wavering loyalties. Which should be a very interesting development in a series that's all about the conflict between good and evil. So, join us as we run through the biggest moments from the second trailer, discussing their potential meaning along the way. There was a lot to digest, to be sure, but these are by far the most significant takeaways. "Raw, Untamed Power..." The second Last Jedi trailer begins as it means to go on with a greater emphasis on the Dark Side of the Force than the first preview. We kick off with Andy Serkis' chilling tones as Supreme Leader Snoke tells Kylo Ren about the "raw, untamed power" he sensed in him when he first found him. Set to this are several snippets of Ren and the forces of the First Order in action. One potentially sees Kylo Ren receiving a new lightsaber from Snoke - the bright red room and glimpse of the Praetorian Guards gives it away. However, it's possible this could be a flashback to the time that Snoke's voiceover speaks of: when Ren first came to the Dark Side. Next, we get a few shots of the Battle on Crait, a mineral planet that used to be a Rebel Base in the old days. Ren marches through a red, rocky terrain with a group of stormtroopers while an army of AT-ATs take on the Resistance's ski speeders (doesn't seem like a fair fight, really). Technically, these are AT-M6s - standing for All Terrain Megacaliber Six. They're also known as "gorilla walkers," thanks to the way their feet tuck in backwards. The most interesting thing about this dialogue is the ambiguity over who Snoke's talking to. Obviously, the accompanying clips lead us to believe it's Kylo, but it could just as well be Rey, as evidence from the rest of the trailer suggests... Luke Takes His Lightsaber It was the big cliffhanger to The Force Awakens and we've been waiting months to see how The Last Jedi would wrap it up - and it turns out it had a pretty obvious answer. Will Luke take the lightsaber that Rey offered to him at the end of the seventh episode? Well, yeah, sure. Except he's clearly reluctant to do so. Nonetheless, Luke begins to train Rey and she looks to very quickly get to grips with using the lightsaber. He also shares with Rey his precious books hidden within a hollowed-out, dead tree. Interestingly, readers of Marvel's Star Wars comics might know what this tree is. In Shattered Empire, Luke and Shara Bey (Poe Dameron's mother) rescue a Force-sensitive tree from the clutches of the Empire. They each take two fragments of it, and this is clearly what Luke did with his. As for the books, like we theorized in our breakdown of the first trailer, these could form the Journal of the Whills, the ancient Jedi holy text. Drawing a very clear parallel between Rey and Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley's heard pleading with Luke to teach her how to use her gifts. "Something inside me has always been there," she says, "but now it's awake" - nice play on the title of the last movie there, Rey - "and I need help." Unfortunately, Luke is not in a teaching mood... Rey Scares Luke After glimpses of her lightsaber prowess, the trailer shows Rey practicing her Force powers to move the earth around her. As seen in the previous trailer, she manages to shake some rocks and levitate them off the ground. However, this time we see that behind her she's actually tearing the ground apart - something that clearly horrifies Luke. "I've seen this raw strength only once before. It didn't scare me enough then, it does now," Luke says, before walking away from Rey, potentially abandoning their training. A heartbroken Rey looks on as he leaves her. As Luke makes his speech, we see flashbacks to the last time he trained a young Jedi - and why he's so reluctant to do so again. This is, of course, his nephew Ben Solo. The flashback teases how Kylo Ren led his Knights of Ren to Luke's Jedi Academy and burned it to the ground. We briefly got snippets of this in The Force Awakens, but it looks like we'll see the whole story in The Last Jedi. We also see a metal hand break through some rubble. It's a classic movie villain thing to do, but this is probably actually Luke, explaining how he survived Kylo's assault on his Academy. Kylo Kills Leia? We then switch back to Kylo Ren, who's being his usual, angsty self. While alone, we see him smash his helmet into the wall, suggesting that he's wavering with his loyalty to the Dark Side - perhaps led by guilt over the murder of his father Han Solo in The Force Awakens. Of course, as everyone knows, the cure for your guilt over killing one parent is to go and kill the other one, too. "Let the past die," Adam Driver's voice explains to someone unknown. "Kill it, if you have to. It's the only way you can become what you are meant to be." He then proceeds to pilot his TIE Silencer, another new craft introduced in this movie, through Resistance ships to reach the Raddus, the flagship. On board is his mother Leia. As Kylo targets her location, the pair seem to look at one another, perhaps sensing each other in the Force. Much like with Han, it looks like this isn't an easy decision for Kylo and spoilers, we're pretty sure this isn't Leia's end, either, as previous comments from the cast have suggested that the character will survive the film. But that doesn't mean that Kylo doesn't go through with it here, as Leia could potentially escape the blast. It's also worth noting that Ren is sporting some kind of metallic evil band aid, running along his right cheek. This must be to heal the scar that Rey gave him in their climactic battle at the end of The Force Awakens. Porgs And Ice Foxes The trailer then cuts to our one clip of Poe Dameron in all this, as he makes an impassioned speech about their fight against evil. "We are the spark that'll light the fire that'll bring the First Order down," says the ace Resistance pilot. Sorry, Poe, but your spotlight is kind of stolen by the little critters that fans have been waiting to meet. As the Millennium Falcon is chased by First Order ships through what looks to be caverns under the surface of Crait (note the red-tinted rocks), we get a classic Chewbacca roar - followed by a Porg offering its own version. These sea birds are native to Ahch-To, but it looks like one comes along to act as a mascot to the Falcon crew in The Last Jedi. A little later on, we're introduced to another new creature for the first time. Some kind of arctic fox native to Crait that looks like it's actually made of ice. Unlike the Porgs, these have not been promoted much so we have no idea what they are. There's a whole herd of them seen running from what are likely the AT-M6s, though. Maybe they'll end up helping the Resistance, much like the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi? Finn vs. Phasma: Second Round Jumping back slightly, Finn finally gets something to do in this trailer as he goes up against his old boss Captain Phasma for a rematch. At an undetermined location, but clearly some kind of crash site, the pair go for another round after their previous brawl in The Force Awakens. Fans will note the weapons that Finn and Phasma fight with. For one, the latter looks awesome with her extendable staff, promising that the character will be used a lot better in The Last Jedi than last time, where she was disappointingly shoved into the trash fairly early on. Finn, meanwhile, is sporting the Z6 riot control baton he took from that meme-creating stormtrooper who said "traitor" in The Force Awakens. He's also clearly wearing a First Order uniform during this fight. Put together with another clip of him in the same clothes and surrounded by stormtroopers at a First Order base, it seems certain that he'll go undercover and infiltrate his old employers on behalf of the Resistance. We're not sure, but it's possible that Finn's efforts will lead to Rey finding herself coming face to face with Snoke, too. Snoke Tortures Rey First, we get some shots of a mega-space battle, with Resistance ships attempting to attack the Supremacy, the humongous ship that Snoke calls home. It seems that Poe and BB-8 will be involved in this battle, with the little spherical droid getting hit at one point! Thankfully, he looks to get away with only a slight headache. Perhaps while the battle is raging on outside, Rey's inside the Supremacy, at Snoke's mercy. With our first glimpse of Snoke in the flesh, we see the First Order commander - nice yellow dressing robe, by the way - torturing Rey. She hangs in the air, soundlessly screaming in pain as Snoke barks an order at her. "Fulfill your destiny!" This is a loaded line as it reveals that this isn't just Snoke punishing his enemy, but that it could be some sort of test for Rey to prove how powerful she is. This is the biggest piece of evidence that Snoke was speaking to Rey at the beginning of the trailer, with his talk of "raw, untamed power." Is he looking to cultivate her for his own ends, like he did Kylo Ren? And, more importantly, is she interested in joining his side? Rey Goes To The Dark Side? The first trailer for The Last Jedi ended with a heck of a gut punch, as Luke revealed that he thinks it's time for the Jedi to end. This one had to match that for shock value and it might have managed it with a tease that Rey could go evil in the movie. "I need someone to show me my place in all this," Rey pleads with Kylo Ren, who offers her his hand. Admittedly, this turn of events is plausible - the trailer shows that while Kylo's gifts were nurtured and praised by Snoke, Rey's talents were shunned by Luke who was terrified of her immense power. So, if she was feeling betrayed by Luke and lost, then it makes perfect sense for her to join the Dark Side. This could then open the door for Kylo to switch to the light again, with the characters swapping the roles of protagonist and antagonist. It would be an incredibly ballsy move for the franchise to make, and one that would be thrilling to see. However, we're not totally buying it. For one, the shots don't quite match up. Look at how Kylo Ren's surrounded by flames and Rey isn't. In fact, Rey's half of the scene looks like it could be the same gloomy landscape that Luke's shown in earlier in the trailer, warning someone unknown that "this is not going to go the way you think." But hey, we've repeatedly heard that writer/director Rian Johnson would push the franchise in a darker direction, so maybe we should keep an open mind. One way or another, we'll find out the tantalizing truth when Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in cinemas on December 15th.