The Rise of Skywalker first look shows glimpses at characters new and old

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A month ago audiences finally got the first look at the upcoming conclusion to the Skywalker saga, STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, and it did not disappoint. After Rey (Daisy Ridley) proved how far her training has come with a sweet backflip over Kylo Ren’s (Adam Driver) ship, the rest of the footage teased an epic conclusion that hinted at a confrontation with an evil not seen since… Now with several months left to go before another glimpse of footage – and even longer before the movie itself – we have yet another fresh look to satiate our needs, this time in the form of the traditional Vanity Fair first look, featuring reliably stunning new photos.

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The piece from Lev Grossman and sporting photos from the incomparable Annie Leibovitz, the feature features interviews from the primary cast and crew and plenty of set photos from their time shooting in the desert valley of Wadi Rum in Jordan. Of course, don’t expect any juicy details, but Grossman was able to certainly get director J.J. Abrams to open up about returning after helming THE FORCE AWAKENS.

I felt beholden to Star Wars in a way that was interesting—I was doing what to the best of my ability I felt Star Wars should be,” he said.

While he said he felt a bit beholden to the previous movies on that one, here he’s going more “renegade” and seemingly directing more from the gut.

"It felt slightly more renegade; it felt slightly more like, you know, Fuck it, I’m going to do the thing that feels right because it does, not because it adheres to something,” he said.

With THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, he’s not only bringing an end to the new saga that he started and Rian Johnson continued on THE LAST JEDI, but the whole nine-movie sage starting back in 1977. But as always, the key is to make a great movie that can stand on its own two feet, and Abrams says the challenge came from doing that while still making it cohesive with the other movies.

 “That’s the challenge of this movie,” Abrams says. “It wasn’t just to make one film that as a stand-alone experience would be thrilling, and scary, and emotional, and funny, but one that if you were to watch all nine of the films, you’d feel like, Well, of course—that!”

As expected, SKYWALKER will see the return of the characters we’ve grown to understand over the last few years – namely Ren, Rey, Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac). Ren, everyone’s favorite Sith goth kid who took on a power position at the end of the last movie, even kicked off what seemed to be the start of a possible maybe perhaps relationship with Rey – which got the internet swooning. But, will this man so committed to the Dark Side pursue love with someone who has a different colored lightsaber?

"And then he had been forging this maybe-bond with Rey,” Driver says, “and it kind of ends with the question in the air: is he going to pursue that relationship, or when the door of her ship goes up, does that also close that camaraderie that they were maybe forming?”

Ridley says there are also some things Rey has to clap back at Ren about, including how he came from a notable family and lineage, only to squander it.  “I think there’s a part of Rey that’s like, dude, you fucking had it all, you had it all,” Ridley says. “That was always a big question during filming: you had it all and you let it go.”

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As for Rey, that opening in the teaser is a perfect visualization of how far she’s come since LAST JEDI

It’s nice having that shot at the beginning of the teaser because I think it’s quite a good visual representation of where she is now: confident, calm, less fearful.… It’s still sort of overwhelming, but in a different way. It feels more right—less like inevitable and more like there’s a focus to the journey.”

Boyega, also shed some light on his character, saying, “Episode Eight, he couldn’t decide what team he was fighting for. But since then he’s made a clear decision.”

Poe has also done some growing since causing several massive problems in LAST JEDI and learning from the mistake of trying to be the Hot Rebel Hero. "There has been a bit of shared history that you haven’t seen,” Isaac says. “Whereas in the other films, Poe is this kind of lone wolf, now he’s really part of a group. They’re going out and going on missions and have a much more familiar dynamic now.”

Yes, there are all the characters from the past two movies back for one last round (for now?), but there are also some new additions, like Naomi Ackie's Jannah (pictured above with Finn riding an orbak), Keri Russell's mysterious masked figure Zorri Bliss and Richard E. Grant's Allegiant General Pryde. We got no details about their characters beyond these new photos, but hey, that's how it goes in the world of STAR WARS. 

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In the end, Abrams said this movie is all about bringing things to a goal, with the main thesis hinging on making sure these characters are ready to carry everyone else into the future after dealing with the problems that started long before they got here.

“This trilogy is about this young generation, this new generation, having to deal with all the debt that has come before. And it’s the sins of the father, and it’s the wisdom and the accomplishments of those who did great things, but it’s also those who committed atrocities, and the idea that this group is up against this unspeakable evil and are they prepared? Are they ready? What have they learned from before? It’s less about grandeur. It’s less about restoring an old age. It’s more about preserving a sense of freedom and not being one of the oppressed.”

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is in theaters December 20.