‘The Last Jedi’ Trailer Is Probably Tricking You: Here’s How

Plenty of fans out there think the latest trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi teases epic moments that might never happen when Episode VIII finally hits theaters in December.

Fans across Twitter think the final few shots, which hint towards Rey falling towards the Dark side of the Force, are a classic case of misdirection. Because it’s a trailer after all, we can’t know which parts of audio and video genuinely match up, and what the actually chronological order is. The trailer could be cut in a way that leads us away from the truth — but that final sequence might not be the only way the new trailer misleads us about what’s going on in The Last Jedi.

One of the last shots in the trailer shows a distraught Rey saying, “I need someone to show me my place in all this.” Immediately, we see Kylo Ren, who simply extends a hand. And the trailer ends. Especially because Luke seems almost hostile towards Rey earlier in the trailer, we assume that she turns to Kylo for help. Who else could she talk to about the Force?

But the lighting in each of these shots, despite being of a similar color around yellow-red, is completely different. The light shining on Rey’s face does just that: shines. It’s consistent and even, which probably means that it’s sunlight sometime around either dusk or dawn, considering the warmer glow.

The bits of flaming ash swirling around Kylo Ren, and the more dynamic light illuminating his face, tell us that he’s probably surrounded by some kind of flaming wreckage. We can’t know where Kylo and Rey are in these shots, but they’re almost definitely not in the same place. (Considering Kylo’s scar, we do know this isn’t from any kind of flashback, however.)

Whether or not Rey gets tempted towards the Dark(er) side by Kylo Ren remains to be seen, but the other major case of potential misdirection in the trailer comes at the very beginning:

The first few scenes in the trailer show Kylo Ren brooding in some factory, walking into a cave, and picking up his emo lightsaber. Over these scenes, Snoke says, “When I found you, I saw raw, untamed power, and beyond that: Something truly special.” Consider Kylo Ren’s his apprentice and he’s who we’re seeing on the screen at the time, it’s easy to draw the connection and assume Snoke is talking about him.

But as soon as Snoke finishes speaking, Rey activate’s the blue Skywalker lightsaber, and the next few tense scenes between Luke and Rey imply that even Luke is afraid of Rey’s power. Porgs screech, Poe Dameron delivers an inspirational line, and Finn fights Phasma. But then Snoke says, “Fulfill your destiny.” as he reaches out to Rey with the Force. She screams, suspended in the air. Even these two scenes together might be disconnected, but the real game-changer would be if Snoke was actually talking to Rey in the first lines from the trailer.

She might be the one with all the power. Luke seems to think so in the trailer, and she was somehow able to defeat Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens with zero training.

After all, would Ben Solo’s power really be “raw” and “untamed” if he had been training with Luke for years before becoming Kylo Ren? Probably not.

Remember, we still have no idea where Rey comes from, who her parents are, or why she wound up on Jakku. Han, Leia, and seemingly Luke didn’t know her when she met each of them. All we know is that she was abandoned on Jakku and she is strong in the Force. Some might say her Midi-chlorian counts are off the charts. Others might prefer to avoid that language altogether.

Maybe Snoke is the one that “found” Rey, either recently or many years ago. For all we know, Snoke could have used a younger Rey with all that “untamed power” to destroy the Jedi Academy Luke had built up. We won’t know anything for sure until The Last Jedi actually comes out, but trust not what you see in film trailers.

Be skeptical, you must.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be released in theaters December 15.

If you liked this article, check out this video about why we’ve never seen paper in the Star Wars Universe.