About That New "Star Wars" Trailer, Poster, and Opening Night Fan Event

The long-awaited second trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi dropped last night. Fans had been wondering if/when they'd see a new trailer for the movie. Some fans are avoiding seeing any sort of spoiler ahead of time and are going "radio silent" as it regards "The Last Jedi." 

Even the movie's writer/director -- Rian Johnson -- suggested on his Twitter account that viewers should avoid this latest trailer if they wanted to avoid spoilers:

I'm not worried about spoilers. I've even read Star Wars movie tie-in novelizations before seeing the movies (back when they used to publish the tie-ins prior to the movie's release date) and it didn't bother me at all (you'll be happy to note that Star Wars: Attack of the Clones was much, much better in novel form...)

The new trailer for The Last Jedi offers some new nuggets for fans to obsess over. Be that as it may, you can tell the studio is keeping a number of things close to the vest. 

I'd also argue that a bit of deception and subterfuge are being implemented here. For example, at the end of the trailer we see Rey (is she a "Solo" or a "Skywalker") saying, "I need someone to show me my place in all this." Her face has an orange glow, and her tone is rather forboding. The trailer then cuts from her to a shot of series heavy Kylo Ren holding out his hand...which the viewer is led to believe is for Rey.  

The prevailing sentiment on the web is that this moment in the trailer is an act of clever editing on the part of the filmmakers. It doesn't seem terribly likely that Disney would want to unleash a mega-spoiler suggesting Rey is going to turn to the darkside. 

I'm not going to delve too heavily into all the intricacies of the trailer, but there are a number of cool looking shots.

We get to see more footage of Rey wielding Anakin/Luke Skywalker's lightsaber during her training:

We get to see Chewbacca and a Porg (Lucasfilm's latest cute and cuddly merchandising ploy) in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon:

We also see a wicked looking battle between Finn and Phasma (a character many fans are hoping garners more screen time in The Last Jedi):

And we get to see BB-8 getting all "electrified" on Poe Dameron's X-Wing:

There are a number of other additional goodies in the trailer. If you're like me, you'll watch the trailer over and over and over again. 

If you want an in-depth analysis of this trailer, check out this video from the "Star Wars Explained" YouTube channel. I discovered this channel a few months ago. Alex Damon (and his wife, Mollie) do a nice job explaining all the intricacies of the Star Wars universe:

In addition to the new trailer, the poster artwork for the latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi one-sheet poster was released. 

While the lastest generation of Disney-produced Star Wars posters don't quite have the same magical quality of artist Drew Struzan's Star Wars work from yesteryear, this is a gorgeous poster:

And that's not all...

As cool as the new trailer and poster are, tickets are also now on sale for the Dec. 14 screenings of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I plan to attend the "Opening Night Fan Event" at Aksarben Cinema for The Last Jedi. If you live in Omaha, NE, I encourage you to join us for this event. 

Tickets are $20 apiece and secure your ticket to the 6 p.m. showing of The Last Jedi, bonus content before the movie, trading cards, and a free concession item (a small popcorn at Aksarben Cinema). 

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