The latest trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally here, and it was pretty impressive. A lot of action, excitement, and the revelation of what a Porg in distress sounds like is on display for folks already buying up tickets left and right. But one sequence from the footage in particular had us holding our collective breath, as Kylo Ren looks to be targeting someone pretty near and dear to our hearts in the Star Wars universe: General Leia Organa.
As you can see in the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which we've embedded for you below, there's a whole sequence starting at about 1:04 that shows Kylo Ren preparing for battle, and speaking to either himself or someone else. His dialogue is pretty telling, as he says,
Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. It's the only way to become who you were meant to be.
Just as Kylo Ren finishes these lines, we see Adam Driver's Star Wars baddie fighting back tears in a sequence that's edited to cut back and forth between his dilemma and a very resigned looking Carrie Fisher sitting on the bridge of a Resistance carrier awaiting her fate. The pause is more than just a small fleeting moment of questionable content, hammering home the very possibility that Kylo could kill Leia, his mother, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And it's worth pointing out that recent history involving Han Solo has shown us that we're not wrong to be concerned.
It may have been almost two years ago, but Kylo Ren (also known as Ben Solo) killing Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still pretty fresh in our minds. Another moment of deep crisis for the former apprentice of Luke Skywalker's, he cried as he told his father that he "knew what [he] had to do", but found himself unable to do so. He ultimately did stab his father through the chest with his special, malfunctioning lightsaber, thus bringing himself closer to his "destiny" as a practitioner of the Dark Side of the Force. But, as Supreme Leader Snoke pointed out towards the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he still has some work to do.
Which brings us to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which sees Kylo trying to "kill the past" by taking out his familial connections, and any emotional ties he has to anything resembling the normal world as a result. General Leia is one of, if not the last, hurdle for Ben Solo to leap over before he totally becomes Kylo Ren. So there's motive and opportunity for the antagonist to kill his mother off in Rian Johnson's new Star Wars movie. But do we really think he'll pull the trigger? Honestly, no; and even if he does, the moment featured in the trailer probably isn't where it happens.
The big strike on the Resistance carrier that we see in the Star Wars: The Last Jedi footage could be part of a scene rumored to be happening closer to the beginning of the film, with the First Order looking to put some serious hurt on our heroes. Should this be true, the chances of General Leia dying wouldn't seem to be that great. But even if this scene happens in the middle, or even towards the end of the eighth Star Wars episode, knowing how beloved her character is we'd like to think that Carrie Fisher's big swan song wouldn't be going out on a sad note. But if you look at the new trailer again, the potential for the complete opposite scenario is hinted at hard enough to turn this into a going concern.
We wouldn't have even thought to ask this question before we saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi's big theatrical trailer, but now that the moment has been teased with such a huge level of importance, it's a thought that's going to stick in our heads. We'll see how things turn out when the film is released in theaters on December 15th. You can get tickets for your choice of opening weekend showtimes right now.
