Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Action Shot Finds Rey In Battle Mode

“Something inside me has always been there. And now, it’s awake.”

Perhaps to tip the scales back towards balance, Lucasfilm has rolled out a brand new action shot from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker which finds Rey in full-on battle mode. Gone is the solemn expression and double-edged lightsaber of Sith Rey and in its place is a much more familiar shot of Daisy Ridley’s heroine.

Wielding her ice-blue lightsaber in what appears to be a screengrab from Episode IX‘s reveal trailer, which found Rey honing her Jedi skills under the supervision of a mystery onlooker – Kylo Ren, in all likelihood – this image was initially shared via Twitter, and can be construed as another primer for the imminent final trailer for The Rise of Skywalker.

History tells us that Disney and Lucasfilm tend to drop a third teaser trailer in the early October window, which certainly bodes well for those itching to know more about Episode IX and the ways in which it concludes the Skywalker Saga.

With fewer than 100 days left standing between now and December 20th, the Star Wars fan theories are coming in thick and fast, and reference everything from Rey’s parentage to the surprise return of Emperor Palpatine, whose mere presence suggests a big twist in the story. Or there’s every chance Palpatine managed to survive the events of Jedi, though we’re still a little suspicious of the villain’s resurgence.

To make matters more interesting, Supreme Leader Snoke is essentially out of the picture, which begs the question: was he little more than a pawn in Palpatine’s plan? Or is there more here than meets the eye? We’re inclined to go with the latter. And remember, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker makes land on December 20th.