Daisy Ridley: The Rise of Skywalker teasers have “confounded the fans”

By now, we’ve seen a couple of teasers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and it’s still hard to get a grasp of just what’s going on. In the original trailer, we see Rey face down a TIE Fighter, and hear the Emperor laugh over the final moments.

In the new teaser released at the D23 Expo, we see Rey and Kylo fighting on the wreckage of the second Death Star in the ocean of Endor. Much has been made of Rey’s look during this scene, with her wearing black robes and wielding a collapsible double-bladed red lightsaber.

In the wake of the new teaser, an abundance of theories have flooded the internet: Rey is turning evil, the fight scene is a vision, there are clones involved, etc. Speaking to People, Daisy Ridley is happy to add fuel to the fire. “What’s fun is what’s been teased so far has confounded the fans,” she said. “Because when I’m in the desert, is [Kylo Ren] in the TIE? What’s going on? Am I running away? Am I running towards? In the fight, we’re fighting each other.”

So she’s not giving anything away, but does tease lots to more to come between Rey and Kylo, who’s already-complicated relationship is only set to develop further. “It’s, I think, a very satisfying story,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I guess we’ve sort of mined that relationship. No, no; we’ve mined it some more.”

While the internet sorts through all the theories, I’d like to talk about one that I’ve been holding onto since that first trailer premiered at the Star Wars Celebration back in April: the idea that Emperor Palpatine will inhabit Rey for part of The Rise of Skywalker.

The A.V. Club has dubbed this theory the Emperor’s New Clothes, and it goes something like this: Palpatine is clearly going to play a role in Episode IX.. He’s on the poster, we can hear his cackle in the first trailer, and in the new teaser, he says, “Your journey…nears its end.” Sure, Palpatine died on the second Death Star way back in Return of the Jedi, but for a Force-user, death isn’t necessarily the end. Jedi only come back as benevolent Force ghosts, but a Sith like Palpatine may have more nefarious plans. What if he possesses the body of the literal last Jedi (Rey), a pupil of Luke Skywalker, the man who helped bring about his downfall, and uses it to achieve his own ends?

"Couldn’t find a gif so I made one (Rey TROS) from StarWarsLeaks"

In the new teaser, we see Kylo Ren and Rey battling on the wreckage of the second Death Star. Assuming Palpatine’s spirit is still hanging around there, he might be able to take control of Rey’s mind during a weak moment. And then apparently he makes her change into a dark robe and wield a red, double-bladed lightsaber, like Darth Maul did way back when.

Is that likely to actually happen? I dunno, but the teasers do make it look like Rey will dance on the Dark Side for at least a little while. What do you think?

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