The Star Wars prequel trilogy gets a lot of flak these days, but there’s no denying that Anakin Skywalker’s earliest outings have their share of defenders too, and apparently J.J. Abrams has little desire to strip them from the canon, since he’s planning to reference these oft-ridiculed flicks in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX.
How exactly the writer-director plans to do this is unclear for the time being, but a recent rumor covered by the Express could offer a clue. According to this unverifiable report, the first trailer to next year’s trilogy-capper will feature some callbacks to Episodes I through III in its music.
“John Williams will compose a track mixed with music from the prequel and the original trilogies. It will be their way of letting fans subliminally know that prequel content is coming. This special track won’t be in the movie but dedicated to the trailer only.”
While we have no way of confirming the intel here, this seems like a pretty plausible idea, with the John Williams score being among the few elements of the prequels that most of us can agree was actually pretty good. As for what content from the trilogy could be making its way into Episode IX, it’s currently hard to say, but the inclusion of Italy on a set report has led to some speculation that the film will feature footage from Naboo.
The bigger news alleged by the Express piece though is that a teaser for the movie will premiere at next year’s Super Bowl, on February 3rd, before the main trailer comes out in April at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. Again, it remains to be seen how legit this intel is, but it’s easy to imagine this being Disney’s plan for the promotion.
In any case, we’ll find out if the film itself was worth all this build-up when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.