The teaser trailer for the third and final installment in the latest Star Wars trilogy, the Rise of Skywalker, dropped earlier this week!

Yes my fellow nerds, I too have seen it over ten times and paused it at every second to see what clues I could find in the screenshots. What? y-you didn’t do that? Oh, well moving on!

Leia: Out of the gates I have to first take a moment. Seeing her (Carrie Fisher) in this trailer as Mark Hamill says “We’ll always be with you,” really F#$^#^ me up. I got so choked up I can’t even!

As we all know, our princess Carrie Fisher passed away nearly three years ago. She had finished her scenes for The Last Jedi but was never able to shoot for the final film. Where the 2017 movie focused heavily on Luke (Mark Hamill) and The Force Awakens did the same for Han (Harrison Ford), this film would have put the spotlight on Leia.

Somehow, with the blessing of Fisher’s family and scenes never used from The Force Awakens, Princess Leia will get a proper sendoff after all.

Like many, I am concerned as to how these scenes shot years ago (and of course with no anticipation of Fisher’s passing) will fit into the narrative of the final installment. At the most recent Star Wars celebration, Carrie’s brother, Todd Fisher stated, ‘“There’s a lot of minutes of footage. I don’t mean just outtakes,” Todd said. “This is unused, new content that could be woven into the story-line. That’s what’s going to give everybody such a great kick. It’s going to look like it was meant to be. Like it was shot yesterday.”’

Though I still need to see the film to believe it, his comments give me a bit more peace as we wait.

Please, Poe!: I want a gay Star Wars character. I don’t give a F#%&# anymore. Did I want Poe and Finn to fall in love? Yes. Did I think that shot in the trailer where Poe’s standing behind Finn on the rocks was salt in the wound? You betcha!

I digress. At this point I think the best we can hope for is a case of the Dumbledore- months after this film has seen the light of day someone over at Disney will say he was gay the whole time and had an off-screen boyfriend that died five minutes before the beginning of the first movie. SMH.

Him…Really?: That laugh at the end of the trailer…We all know it was the Sith Lord himself, Palpatine. I absolutely loved this character from the prequels. Do I think his inclusion ties the nine films together? Um, sure? Yet another part of me feels it’s recycling.

I know people loved The Force Awakens but for me it was more of the same. It felt almost beat for the beat like the original Star Wars film. Then they made The Last Jedi that REALLY deviated from the formula and fans got upset over that. So where will this film stand regarding the recipe? Replica or original? Time will tell.

Perhaps some will be said that this ninth film will not only conclude this trilogy but will conclude the Skywalker saga which began all the way back in 1977. Forty-two years!!

It is certainly a moment but, come on, Disney owns this now…Star Wars isn’t going anywhere…

The Future:  Several projects have already been confirmed for Star Wars after the release of this film in December. We know that The Mandalorian will premiere on Disney+. Also, Game of Thrones showrunners  David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be producing their own set of Star Wars films. Yes, that is correct, GoT meets Star Wars. Hold your skulls in because our minds might get blown.

Also, though we know the fate of Diego Luna’s character from Rogue One, he will be reprising his role of Cassian Andor for a Disney+ prequel series! More importantly, Alan Tudyk will be returning as the sassy and salty droid, K-2SO.

Yes, we are saying goodbye to the Skywalkers but it seems we are nowhere near done with this galaxy far far away… Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go see the trailer another ten times and get myself worked up over Leia.

The Rise of Skywalker will hit theaters December 20, 2019.