In latest Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ad, what's with the Sith dagger?
Rey's got her hands on a mysterious weapon.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Warning: Possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ahead.
Two new ads for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came out early this week, and Rey's got her hands on a new weapon. The curved dagger gets its closeup when Rey holds it up for Poe, Finn and the rest to see, but its origin and history aren't explained, leading to plenty of online speculation.
This isn't the first time we've seen the dagger, though it may be the first time it's gotten such a closeup. Fans who are fast on the freeze-frame button know it's showed up briefly in earlier footage. Rey seems to be clutching that same dagger, which some have dubbed the "Sith dagger," in the scene from the recent trailer where she and Kylo shatter what The Star Wars Show says is "Kylo's Darth Vader shrine."
In Star Wars lore beyond the main series of movies, there is a famed and powerful dagger. It's a weapon called the Dagger of Mortis, a powerful item from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, and some fans have made the natural assumption that this dagger may be the one Rey gets her hands on here.
Maybe? The design of the weapon Rey holds up in the TV ad is far more elaborate than that one shown in Clone Wars. But who knows what liberties the Star Wars universe could choose to take when translating an animated item to a live-action film? And it might seem odd to suddenly bring in an object from a show many movie viewers will never have seen, with a complicated backstory all its own.
While no one knows for sure, some sources claim the dagger will give Rey power to see the truth of what happened to her parents, and that it will play a major role in her inevitable final battle with a certain hideous bad guy.
Another TV spot released Tuesday, titled Adventure, packs plenty of action into just 30 seconds of footage.
There's Rey showing off her combat skills in a forest, a squadron of TIE fighters heading for a target , BB-8 beeping, Finn getting some work in with his blaster, Poe announcing that the rebels "won't surrender," and, of course, Rey facing off with Kylo Ren. (The dagger shows up in one of her hands as they smash the Vader shrine, in that same scene we saw earlier in the full-length trailer.)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens worldwide on Dec. 20, with previews on Dec. 19.
