No one’s ever really gone

Disney’s D23 expo continues to deliver for Star Wars fans, as the convention has proceeded to steal internet headlines for the second day in a row, (and this one is a biggie), with the unveiling of the first poster for December’s The Rise of Skywalker.

We knew from April’s teaser trailer that Emperor Palpatine would be making a return – Ian McDiarmid’s stage appearance and iconic “roll it again” command was just the beginning – this poster has the Sith Lord that was behind it all… well… behind it all.

We see Rey and Kylo Ren locked in combat and on top of wreckage, possibly the fragments of the second Death Star as seen in the teaser trailer. Behind them and in keeping with previous Star Wars posters, the villain of the piece looms and it is Palpatine – not an abstract presence, but a literal one.

This flies in the face of what I expected Palpatine’s presence in the movie to be – tied to our protagonists and/or antagonists in spirit, or somehow haunting the Death Star wreckage.

This poster suggests that Palpatine will be the movie’s main antagonist – likely more so than Kylo Ren, whose future alliances are one of the most compelling mysteries heading into the film.

Palpatine’s looming presence and the use of the blue and red light and mist behind the duelling pair reminded me of the aesthetic used in the Star Wars Rebels episode “The World Between Worlds” which effectively served to introduce a time travel element to the franchise.

The World Between Worlds is only accessible via the Mortis painting on the wall of the Jedi Temple on Lothal, and is a mystical plane by which time and space can be navigated. Palpatine aimed to gain access to the realm in order to achieve near unlimited power, (queue “ironic”.)

Has Palpatine somehow achieved his goal and worked out a way of navigating The World Between Worlds? If he has, that would allow him to have essentially transported himself into the future and has perhaps helmed the rise of the First Order as a new version of his fallen Empire, with, of course, a golden robed “Snoke screen” shrouding his presence.

That is maybe some irresponsible speculation on my part and given that I’ve come up with it, is probably not the narrative that has been woven by J.J. Abrams and his team. After all, it would be a bold strategy to tie Palpatine’s presence in Episode 9 to lore rolled out in an animated series that a large swathe of the fanbase won’t have seen.

But that mystery and wild speculation is what separates the build up to The Rise of Skywalker from other juggernaut releases, namely Avengers: Endgame – we have simply no idea where this story is heading.

With Endgame, we knew there would be an element of time travel to reverse Thanos’ snap, but we have no such ability to make a firm prediction regarding how the Skywalker Saga is going to conclude.

That is in part thanks to Rian Johnson’s work in The Last Jedi which served to disrupt the status quo in spectacular fashion. It’s given Abrams somewhat of a blank slate to work with and that is hugely exciting, with his first poster being a reflection of that.