Explained: Why ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ could be the finale of this Star Wars story line

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth film in the primary Star Wars continuity, culminates what is being called the 'Skywalker Saga' that began with 1977's original Star Wars.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releases on December 20, 2019.

The third and final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was unveiled on Monday. The two-and-a-half-minute clip gave the conclusive feel of everything coming together for one last time. The film culminates what is being called the ‘Skywalker Saga’ that began with 1977’s original Star Wars (later rechristened Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope).

The first Star Wars trilogy introduced Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (late Carrie Fisher), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and others and placed the viewer right into the middle of the overarching conflict between the tyrannical Galactic Empire led by Emperor Palpatine and his lieutenants like Darth Vader and the democratic Rebel Alliance fighting for the control of a galaxy that was, we were told, far, far away from ours. The Galactic Empire was vanquished and the rebels were victorious in the Return of the Jedi.

The prequel trilogy that came later contextualised the Galactic Empire-Rebel Alliance conflict and was mainly the story of Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father, his descent to the dark side and how he came to be known as Darth Vader.

The ongoing sequel trilogy kicked off with JJ Abrams’ The Force Awakens in 2015. It was set three decades after the defeat of the Galactic Empire. The remnants of the Galactic Empire have coalesced into the First Order, a similar dictatorship commanded by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), which was modelled on Hitler’s Third Reich.

The film introduced three new protagonists — Daisy Ridley’s Rey, John Boyega’s Finn and Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron. They were joined by Leia, Solo and Luke (in the brief final scene). Apart from Snoke, the film also had Vader’s heir apparent, Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, as Snoke’s strongest underling.

The Force Awakens was followed by The Last Jedi in 2017. This time Rian Johnson was given the reins. The film was noted for turning many of the franchise tropes on their head. For one, Rey’s rumoured Skywalker parentage, among other things, were put aside as irrelevant in the film, to the consternation of many fans who had long theorised about it.

Johnson did not care one whit about the several fan theories swirling around the Internet. The theories about Snoke’s identity and the Supreme Leader himself was similarly dispensed with. This caused a massive backlash and disgruntlement among many fans, though the film did please critics.

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The Last Jedi had the Resistance (rebels against the First Order) making a final stand against Kylo Ren and his forces on the mineral-rich planet of Crait. The Resistance forces escaped in the end, thanks to a timely intervention by Luke Skywalker’s Force projection.

The Rise of Skywalker, helmed by returning director JJ Abrams, may not end the Star Wars franchise, but it will certainly be the finale of Star Wars we have known. The future films in the franchise, to be developed by Rian Johnson, David Benioff & DB Weiss, Kevin Feige and others down the line, will likely not concern themselves with Skywalkers whose story formed the franchise’s primary continuity — that is, excluding spinoffs like Rogue One.

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