The Most Sinister Shot In The ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ Trailer Comes From The Original ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy

The third and final Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer premiered on Monday night (the only reason for non-Patriots fans to watch that terrible Monday Night Football game), and with it came Rey and Kylo Ren fighting on what appears to be the ruins of Death Star II, BB-8 looking as cute as ever, and C-3PO wanting to take another look at you, Bradley Cooper-style. But my personal favorite moment in the trailer occurs at 0:54 when we see Emperor Palpatine’s throne room. It’s a sinister-looking shot — with an even more uncomfortable-looking chair than the Iron Throne on Game of Thrones (2019: the year of the throne!) — with a lot of history behind it for Star Wars fans. As pointed out by Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak, the Rise of Skywalker throne is inspired by legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie’s early concept sketches from Return of the Jedi.

Szostak tweeted the designs after the trailer premiered.

— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) October 22, 2019

Interestingly, we never see the Emperor (played by Ian McDiarmid) in the trailer, only hear him say, “Long have I waited, and now your coming together is your undoing.” It’s similar to something he says in — I’m sorry — Revenge of the Sith, when he, as Darth Sidious, tells Yoda, “I have waited a long time for this moment… At last, the Jedi are no more.” It almost worked then; we’ll find out on December 20 if it works this time.