Here’s Everything You Need To Know Before ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’

After 42 years and 8 films, on December 19 the Skywalker saga will end with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

But if you need a refresher on everything that’s lead up to this moment, we’ve got your – ahem – Chewbacca. Here’s your guide to all the little details you’ll need to keep in mind going into the new Star Wars.

Anakin Skywalker is a force baby

Mystery parents are a big deal in a galaxy far, far away — yet a big question mark hangs over the identity of Anakin Skywalker’s father. In The Phantom Menace his mother, Shmi Skywalker, says he was conceived by the force: “There was no father. I carried him, I gave birth, I raised him, I can’t explain what happened.”

The news that Anakin is an immaculate conception leads the Jedi to believe he’s the chosen one who will bring balance to the force, but we know that didn’t work out. Was Shmi telling the truth? The origins of the Skywalker bloodline may come into play in Rise of Skywalker.

Sith versus Jedi

Star Wars is built upon a beef between two ancient orders: the Jedi and the Sith. Both use the force, but the Jedi believe in peace and the light side while the Sith want to control the universe using the dark side.

At one point, the two factions go to war and the Sith lose – big time. At the beginning of The Phantom Menace, the Sith have been in hiding for over a thousand years and the whole film is the announcement of their comeback tour. Given the Emperor is back in Episode 9, it seems safe to assume that the Sith is about to hit the fan.

Darth Plagueis

The Emperor wasn’t born evil. In Revenge of the Sith, we learn that he was once a Sith apprentice to Darth Plagueis, who experimented with the force and discovered a way to prevent people from dying.

The young Emperor killed Darth Plagueis in his sleep, but we don’t know how much knowledge he kept about the force fountain of youth. The Emperor may have figured out the secret to cheating death.

One with the force

While Darth Plagueis figured out how to prolong life using the force, a select group of Jedi Knights discovered how to become one with the force.

In the prequels, Yoda mentions that Qui-Gon Jinn had become a force ghost. Obviously, Obi Wan Kenobi studied force ghosting while living on Tatooine and used it during his duel with Darth Vader in A New Hope. Next, Yoda joins the force ghost gang in Return of the Jedi. Why use the force when you can be the force!

The force ghost skill is an important one in the saga because it’s proves there’s still more to learn about the force.

The prophecy

The Jedi are bad at prophecy.

The original prediction was: “A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.” When they talk balance, they mean getting rid of the dark side, AKA the Sith.

Initially, the ancient order thought it was going to be Anakin Skywalker — but he went emo, became Darth Vader and helped wipe out the Jedi. Then they thought maybe Luke Skywalker was going to be the Chosen One, but he helped defeat the Empire, started a new Jedi school and tried to kill his nephew out of fear. The school burnt down, students died, and he went into hiding.

The best scene in The Last Jedi is the one where Luke and Yoda reunite, because it’s where the saga finally admits the Jedi got it wrong and need to grow beyond prophecy. In any prophecy is a hint of truth, but maybe balance isn’t just eradicating one side of the force? The chosen one could still be in play and it could be someone who can balance the light and dark side of the force without losing their mind.

It could even be more than one person — could Rey and Kylo Ren be a force-balancing power couple?

Send in the clones

Creating clones is a big part of the sci-fi side of Star Wars. It’s the technology that gave the Empire an army and it’s safe to assume it’s more widely available across the galaxy. Could the revived Emperor in Rise of Skywalker be a clone? Or are any of the new characters introduced from The Force Awakens onwards fresh from the old cloning factory? A little double trouble could be coming to Star Wars.

The Jedi myth

Enough time has passed between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that most people in the outer rim of the galaxy believe the story about the Jedi and the Skywalkers is a myth. The Empire fell and the First Order rose to keep making life hell for people; so no wonder they thought maybe the whole Jedi thing was nonsense.

It’s an important detail because the appearance of people who can use the force and wield a lightsaber is a big deal to everyone who thought it was all fake. The Jedi aren’t just important because of what they can do, they’re symbolic of an era most have been told didn’t happen — the peaceful days of the old republic. Han Solo was once the biggest cynic but in The Force Awakens he tells Finn and Rey: “It’s true. All of it.” The existence of the Jedi has the power to give a lot of people hope.

Rey’s vision

One of the most exciting moments in The Force Awakens is the vision Rey has after touching Luke’s lightsaber for the first time. We hear the voice of Yoda and Obi-Wan as well as flashes of a young Rey being abandoned on Jakku and the massacre at Luke’s Jedi Academy by Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren (more on them in shortly). You can interpret this moment as the force reaching out to Rey to convince her to become a Jedi, but it’s also layered with clues about her identity. People have been obsessing over this sequence for years and a bunch of fan theories could blow up in our faces, but it only enhances the excitement for Rise of Skywalker.

The Knights of Ren

Rey’s vision shows us that Kylo Ren didn’t act alone when he turned to the dark side. Kylo Ren is the leader of a new generation of dark force users called The Knights of Ren — think of them as Darth Vader fanboys who are obsessed with finishing what Vader started by eradicating the Jedi. The design of their costumes resembles Vader’s iconic ensemble.

The Knights of Ren were supposed to be more prominent in The Force Awakens but were cut because their backstory blew out the film’s runtime. It’s confirmed the Knights of Ren will appear in Rise of Skywalker, so get familiar with these Vader bois.

Jedi temple

The Jedi temple where Luke is hiding in The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi is one of the first temples ever built in the universe. If you pay close attention, you’ll see there are a collection of books in the temple. There’s a lot going on in Star Wars, so who has time for books? Well, these ones are important because they contain the history of the Jedi and how they learnt to use the force.

Now, the temple eventually burns down but toward the end of The Last Jedi and you see the books have been saved, as they’re put away in a drawer on the Millennium Falcon. Surely, they must come back into play at the conclusion of the saga.

Luke’s lightsaber got destroyed

A small detail in The Last Jedi you may have missed is the destruction of Luke’s lightsaber, which splits in half during a clash with Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. In the trailer for Rise of Skywalker we see the lightsaber back in action, but that may be because Rey rebuilt the iconic weapon. Huge if true.

For a Jedi to complete their training they must build their own lightsaber. Rey taking the pieces of a broken Skywalker relic to build a new lightsaber is symbolic and could hint at how the saga is going to end.

The force belongs to everyone

The Last Jedi ends with a boy using the force to pick up a broom. Look, using the force to pick up a broom is not the most thrilling moment in the saga, but it hints at something bigger going on. A lot of Episode 8 deals with ditching the old ways and the elitism of the Jedi; sending the message that the force doesn’t belong to a select group of people. The future of the Jedi is in question here, and whether Rey will decide to continue the beliefs of the order or evolve into something new.

R2-D2 and C3PO 4 life

At the end of the day, the Star Wars saga is about two droids who have seen it all. DFFs (Droid Friends Forever). They’ve been in every single film in the saga and have played a pivotal role. Look, this is just a warning so you can emotionally prepare to say goodbye to these old, loyal, courageous friends.