Cosmic Log
For Star Wars fans, it’s the hap-happiest season of all — and that makes dress-up artists like Kay Ahern something akin to Santa Claus.
“Forget Christmas,” said Ahern, who was costumed as emo villain Kylo Ren tonight for the premiere of “Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi” at Seattle’s Cinerama. “This is my religious holiday.”
The Force is clearly with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The trailer for Episode VIII of the movie saga made its debut in the midst of Monday Night Football, kicking off ticket sales for the Dec. 14 premiere and beyond.
And the truly magical part was that you could actually buy tickets.
First, about that trailer: Although fans have gotten glimpses of the upcoming movie at Comic-Con and other special events, this is the biggest fully loaded dose of Star Wars lore to go public since the first official trailer was released in April.
Did you feel a disturbance in the Force? As if millions of Star Wars fans suddenly cried out in delight? That upswing in the midichlorian count was caused by the release of the first online trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” teasing us with the silhouette and voice of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.
The two-minute clip was released today in conjunction with a weekend-long Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Fla.
Without getting too spoilery, let’s just say that the trailer picks up the story where the previous installment, “The Force Awakens,” left off. Skellig Michael, an island off the coast of Ireland that served as a monastic redoubt centuries ago, comes in for a lot of screen time.
Daisy Ridley, who was introduced as a swashbuckling rebel named Rey in the previous film, also gets a lot of screen time in the trailer. Skywalker is clearly giving Rey counsel on the Jedi ways, but apparently not the counsel she was hoping for.
“I only know one truth,” we hear Hamill saying in a gravelly voice, worlds away from the boyish tone he had 40 years ago in the very first Star Wars movie. “It’s time for the Jedi … to end.”