Yeah, of course they want you to think it's a reference to one of the characters, but I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being something more metaphorical. But even more than the title the thing I'm most curious about is the Palpatine laugh, and Ian McDiarmid's popping up on stage after the trailer. Does this mean he's actually in the movie, as a Force Ghost perhaps?
As I mentioned a week or so ago (and as was pointed out by Matt Rushing), there's an entire 'branch' of the Skywalker family tree that we know absolutely nothing about, and so it would be more than feasible for Rey to be a Skywalker without being linked, directly, to Leia and Luke, which we know she isn't... which is a theory that gains more traction given the title of the film and the fact that it's the confirmed end of the Skywalker Saga. @JD, Sith can't become Force Ghosts, so if the Emperor did survive, it would have been through other means.
Rise of skywalker could mean Rey is the first member of a new group. I want to say “cult” but that doesn’t really fit Also after this Star Wars movie the series will go on a 3 plus year hiatus
Honest to God, I'm fine with this. There has been too much too fast. Five movies and multiple TV series in five years is a lot.
A few comments/thoughts on specifics of the trailer (spoiler-tagged): Spoiler 1) Why was there a TIE Fighter flying along the ground? 2) I wonder if deliberately recreating the shot of Lando flying the Falcon from Return of the Jedi was done purely for nostalgia or if there's a story point to it 3) I wonder why Kylo appears to be fighting one of his fellow Knights of Ren 4)I can't help but feel like there's a connection between the Knights of Ren going to the Unknown Regions, Kylo fighting one of them, and the possible return of the Emperor
Some BTS images they showed before the panel, but not on the live stream https://imgur.com/a/MDqHT67#ALb1CPH Also, there is a shadow of an Imperial-I Class Star Destroyer (the variant seen in ANH and Rogue one) in one shot (Image credit to blueleaf on facepunch)
Or more likely she is a Skywalker. We know from Simon Pegg, JJ had ideas of giving her a lineage since TFA.
^ Like I noted, there's an entire branch of the Skywalker family tree that we know absolutely nothing about, so it's entirely possible that she is both a "nobody from nowhere" AND a Skywalker (and no, revealing this would not invalidate anything that was set up by The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, contrary to what some disgruntled people might choose to believe).
Could be possible. But I hope that she's not a familial Skywalker in any sense of the term. I'm not really interested in the idea of it all being in the family. But it could very well be the direction they choose to go in.
I definitely think it's a red herring. At this point in the story, it makes zero sense to go that route. I'm sticking with a rebranding of the Jedi for now as it goes with the story flow.
The Episodic Films are and have always been a "family saga"; it had previously appeared as if Luke, Leia, and Ben were going to be the only representatives of that family to tie the Sequel Trilogy into the grander whole of the "Skywalker Saga", but the reveal of Episode IX's title coupled with the fact that we know nothing about Shmi Skywalker provides the perfect avenue for unequivocally cementing Rey as an integral part of that family without directly linking her to Luke and Leia, which we know she isn't and without invalidating anything that TFA and TLJ established about her or about the nature of the Force itself and the state of the galaxy. How, exactly, does what you're suggesting "go with the story flow" of what is the conclusion to the SKYWALKER SAGA?
Sith can't be Force Ghosts, however they can bind their essence to a foci of the Dark Side, an object or a location, to keep their consciousness persisting after death. If that was the Death Star II debris, Palpatine may still be there, bound within.
The Jedi are finished. The new Force users will go by a new name, which I think will be Skywalkers. There is your conclusion to the Skywalker saga.
One particular note in the panel is they acknowledge that with Solo they felt that SW no longer felt special
Vadar got one. He was a deeply angry, murderous Jedi for a short while then one of the most barbaric Sith there was. If he gets one, everyone does.
That's similar to Clone Wars when Yoda goes on walkabout and sees the Sith Lord in the temple in the final broadcast episodes.