The first trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” was unveiled Friday at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida, and according to The Hollywood Reporter it was a huge hit with the fans in attendance.
During the panel, Rian Johnson spoke glowingly of the late Carrie Fisher, who will make her final screen appearances in “The Last Jedi” and, using additional footage, in the concluding “Episode IX”.
“I just adore her and I connected first and foremost with her as a writer,” Johnson said. “She’s a brilliant writer. An incredible mind. I’d go to her house and I’d sit on her bed for hours and go through the script. I’d just scribble on my script everything she said, and at the end of six hours there would be a four-word line of dialogue that was a distillation of all of that.”
In addition to the trailer, the official poster for the highly anticipated sequel was also unveiled, indicating that Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker will play a far larger role in this film than he did in “The Force Awakens”.
Also on hand during today’s panel was star Daisy Ridley, who spoke about her character’s ongoing journey in the upcoming film.
“In ‘The Last Jedi’, we go deeper into Rey’s story,” said Ridley. “And what is very apparent from where we left of in ‘The Force Awakens’ … is Rey has a certain expectation as to what she might be getting from Luke and what that might entail. … it’s difficult when you meet your heroes because it might not be what you expect.”
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John Boyega was also in attendance, and he discussed the repercussions of his character, Finn, after being seriously injured in a lightsabre battle with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
“It’s been painful. It’s been a process,” admitted Boyega. “Finn definitely stood up for himself at the end of ‘Force Awakens’ and caught a bit of an injury to the back. So he’s in recovery, but he’ll definitely be back in ‘The Last Jedi’, and he’s not playing this time.”
Added Boyega: “In ‘The Last Jedi’, it’s a test for all the characters, but specifically for Finn. He wants to find his place now. Is he going to be a part of the Resistance or is he going to keep running away from The First Order? We’ll see.”
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Fans in attendance also met new “Star Wars” cast member Kelly Marie Tran, who revealed that, because of the top-secret nature of her role, she told her family she was shooting “an indie movie in Canada.”
She did, however, tease a bit of information about her character, Rose. “She’s part of the Resistance,” offered Tran. “And she works in maintenance and I just can’t wait for you to meet her.”
The biggest applause during the panel, however, came when Mark Hamill took to the stage, and he admitted that he had some serious anxiety about returning to the role that he first played in the 1977 film that launched the franchise.
As Hamill related, he told Johnson early in the process that he was “terrified,” and shared the director’s response. “You know what he said? ‘So am I.’ That’s a director I can love,” said Hamill, who also shared some details about Luke’s role in the film.
“To a certain extent it’s not Luke’s story anymore,” said Hamill. “But I think he’s an important part to the overall arc of the saga and again, there’s a lot of mystery about him, even within the film. You have to fill in your own back story.”