Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer Confirms Rey and Kylo Ren Destroy Darth Vader Shrine

The final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrived earlier this week, showing what could be the last battle between the Light and the Dark sides of the Force as Rey and the Resistance go to war against Kylo Ren and the First Order. The trailer itself did its best to keep the plot under wraps, instead showing a lot of dramatic moments with the characters backed by John Williams’ swelling score and the emotional voice overs of characters including Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. But there was intriguing part of the trailer that has fans guessing.

In the trailer, Rey and a masked Kylo Ren are in what appears to be an Imperial medical chamber, much like the one used by Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. And in the quick scene, they appear to be destroying a statue — or maybe Rey is destroying it while Kylo Ren attempts to stop her.

We finally got some clarification thanks to The Star Wars Show, which reveals that the statue being destroyed is actually a shrine in the likeness of Darth Vader, which makes sense that Kylo would attempt to protect it.

Vader has loomed large over the first two films in the sequel trilogy, though he’s only appeared as a burnt mask recovered by Kylo Ren for his idolization. But in this film it looks like the focus will shift toward the influence of Emperor Palpatine, as director J.J. Abrams himself said during an interview with MTV News earlier this year.

“I will say that that’s part of what the story is, and also, I will say that with the Emperor around, he’s not going to be your, you know, the cuddly pal,” Abrams explained. “I can’t wait for you to see how that plays out, but he’s in the poster for a reason.”

The filmmaker recognizes that some fans might be disappointed in bringing the Emperor back after his death in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but said it works for the story.

“Some people feel like we shouldn’t revisit the idea of Palatine, and I completely understand that,” Abrams says in an interview with Empire Magazine. “But if you’re looking at the nine films as one story, I don’t know many books where the last few chapters have nothing to do with those that have come before. If you look at the first eight films, all the set-ups of what we’re in IX are there in plain view.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres in theaters on December 20th.