With just under a month to go, the publicity blitz for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has begun in earnest. Over the weekend, Disney released a new TV spot for the film, a new behind-the-scenes teaser reel arrived last night, and this morning, J.J. Abrams brought a clip from the film to Good Morning America.
Some spoilers for Rise of Skywalker ahead.
Saturday’s 30-second TV spot “Fate” showed off a bit of new footage featuring the elusive Knights of Ren, the film’s latest Stormtrooper upgrades in action, and C-3P0 revealing the stakes of their mission.
The “Special Look” clip takes a step back. There’s a bit of intriguing new footage from the film (a glimpse of Lin-Manuel Miranda [!!] and Ed Sheehan in costume), but the focus here is on the legacy of the franchise since its inception. J.J. Abrams and members of the cast talk about the importance of the films to them, along with clips of archival footage from the films, TV shows, and news reports that have referenced Star Wars over the decades, like How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, and Toy Story 2.
Finally, J.J. Abrams visited ABC’s Good Morning America earlier today, where he spoke a bit about the film: he revealed that he and his crew finished the film on Sunday, and that ending the franchise was “scary,” that it was an ending not to three films, but to nine.
.@starwars launched 42 years ago. And 24 days from now, the final chapter will be revealed in theaters! We are THRILLED to have director @jjabrams with us this morning — and he’s sharing an EXCLUSIVE clip from #TheRiseOfSkywalker! pic.twitter.com/gOfUTGWzpW
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 25, 2019
He also revealed a comedic new clip from the film (which he says comes early in the story), in which C-3P0, Finn, Poe, and Rey discover that the First Order’s Stormtrooper now come with jetpacks:
Abrams revealed another fun tidbit: at one point during the production, a full script of the film appeared on eBay. One of his actors (he wouldn’t say which one) had the script stolen from under their bed by a cleaner, and it ended up on eBay. Disney “got it back” before it was sold.
The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.
