Rey’s Tempted by the Dark Side in new Star Wars: The Last Jedi Teaser

One of the most surprising moments in the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer was when Rey (Daisy Ridley) appeared to be about ready to accept the outstretched hand of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), her mortal enemy and the poster child (er, man) of the Dark Side. At the time we assumed this was a clever head fake by the marketing team, a way to throw us off the scent of the film’s real narrative trajectory. While it neatly echoed the battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, and the latter’s attempt to lure the prodigy over to the side of Sith Lords, it still rang as a possible fake out. Part of the reason was this ‘Rey’s considering the Dark Side!’ feint appeared in the same trailer that also seemed to show Ren about to take out his mom, General Organa (Carrie Fisher), from the seat of his TIE-Silencer. These would be two major moments in the film; there’s no way the crack marketing team at Lucasfilm and Disney would ever hint at them both in a trailer.

Then Lucasfilm and Walt Disney dropped this new teaser, “Tempt,” which returns to the theme of Rey’s struggle with where, precisely, she belongs. While only half a minute long, the new teaser gives us our longest extended look at Luke’s attempted guidance of Rey, who senses she’s being called by something powerful. As Ridley said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rey’s relationship to the resistance is still a thin one. “She’s been left her whole life, and very quickly is eager to sort of help other people, which is wonderful. She wants to be part of something. I mean, everyone wants to be part of something.”

That something looks like it really could be the Dark Side. In all the behind-the-scenes footage we’ve seen of The Last Jedi, the one consistent theme we’ve heard from the actors is how surprised they were with where writer/director Rian Johnson took the story. This could mean that our heroine Rey may end up in a shocking place by the film’s end. If The Last Jedi is anything like that other, beloved middle-of-the-trilogy installment, The Empire Strikes Back, there’s no guarantee Rey doesn’t end up taking Ren’s hand. 

Featured image: Rey (Daisy Ridley) in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Courtesy Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios.

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