Star Wars Weekly: What does the Rise of Skywalker trailer really tell us? How about Rian Johnson?

Time again for STAR WARS WEEKLY, the SYFY WIRE series that rounds up the most important news of the week from a galaxy far, far away. Think of us as your own personal Star Wars Holocron.

THE FINAL TRAILER

The final trailer for The Rise of Skywalker premiered at halftime during Monday Night Football game earlier this week, and fans collectively lost their minds, which is understandable.

What's wonderful about this trailer is that it shows a number of things that seem to say something about what The Rise of Skywalker is really about, but when you analyze it, it doesn't really say anything at all. Just what in the hell is going on?

We know a few things for sure: Kylo Ren and Rey are going to have to face the complicated feelings they developed in The Last Jedi. Palpatine, or at the very least the specter of Palpatine, is going to need to be reckoned with. And there is definitely a hint of the past as well, the design for that throne came straight from Ralph McQuarrie:

The other interesting thing we discovered is that the planet where the remains of the second Death Star landed is really a moon. An ocean moon. It's called Kef Bir (pronounced "Keff Beer"), and you're going to be able to visit it yourself:

The breakout star of this trailer, the one providing the lion's share of emotion, is C-3PO. The moment where he's being reprogrammed (or something) and he turns to look upon his friends was a shocking gut-punch. Is he sacrificing himself for some reason? Will he be back? Again, more questions than answers.

The Rise of Skywalker comes out on December 20th.

Hopefully, we can all keep cool heads until it comes out.

THE MANDALORIAN PRESS CONFERENCE

Recently, members of the press were invited to gather in Hollywood to watch new footage from The Mandalorian, attend a press conference, and do interviews with the cast and crew. SYFY WIRE was on hand and you'll get more detailed reports about it when the embargo lifts on October 29.

In the meantime, Entertainment Tonight, who provided host Ash Crossan for the press conference, posted that portion of the press day on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. It includes a chat between Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and they're later joined by cast members Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, and Carl Weathers.

More coverage will be coming from SYFY WIRE after the embargo lifts. The Mandalorian hits screens in November with the launch of Disney+.

RIAN JOHNSON CONFIRMS HIS TRILOGY… AGAIN

Ash Crossan once again delivered the goods for Star Wars fans. This time, it was with an interview with Rian Johnson where he clarified his comments from before about whether or not his trilogy of Star Wars films is happening. As we wrote last week, we thought the clickbait that was spun from his comment was unwarranted and we were correct in that assessment.

Here's the most relevant quote from the interview: "Did I say 'if'? Oh God," he said with a laugh while speaking with ET. "I have no update at all. But I'm still working with Lucasfilm on it, and they're figuring out when they do what and everything."

As we surmised, his hedging was more on timing and less on whether or not he was doing it.

For the most up-to-date Star Wars content from Ash Crossan, be sure to follow her on Twitter. You won't regret it. Especially if you love porgs.

STAR WARS RESISTANCE

This week sees another new episode of Star Wars Resistance. The new episode, "Hunt on Celsor 3," sees the crew of the Colossus doing their best to avoid the First Order and not starve while they're short on supplies. To that end, they're looking at unorthodox ways of feeding everyone, leading them to this scene:

The episode is a lot of fun and has definite elements of Moby Dick to it. More than anything, I'm excited to see where the Colossus heads next.

Star Wars Resistance airs on Sunday on Disney and Disney XD.

LUKE, BEN, AND THE KNIGHTS OF REN

Charles Soule revealed the cover to the second issue of his Kylo Ren comic and it raises far more questions than it answers.

As he points out, yes, that is Ben Solo and Luke Skywalker, fighting back to back against the Knights of Ren.

What does this mean?

A number of theories come to mind and it changes everything we thought we knew about Kylo Ren and the Knights whose name he bears. Now we know that Luke and Ben knew of the threat the Knights of Ren in the galaxy long before Ben's turn to the dark side. Did the Knights of Ren ambush them on some unrelated mission? Will this be the beginning of the overtures made to Ben by the dark side.

Whatever this really means, we're just going to have to wait to find out, now, won't we?

This issue of the comic comes out in January and we'll all, no doubt, still be stunned by The Rise of Skywalker.

STAR WARS HALLOWEEN

It's still the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace and what better way to commemorate the Halloween season than with a look at how the costumes of The Phantom Menace were advertised to kids on television?

Until next week, May the Force Be With You!