The first teaser trailer for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” dropped on Star Wars Celebration, an annual event that celebrates the entire franchise.
The teaser showed brief glimpses of the upcoming film. We saw scenes of a desert planet. A lightsaber. A destroyed Death Star floating in water. Kylo Ren body-slamming people.
The trailer hypes you up, leading up to the final moment of the trailer.
“No one is ever really gone,” Luke Skywalker’s voice says in the trailer.
Emperor Palpatine’s voice cackles. A powerful laughter. Palpatine is returning.
And then actor Ian McDiarmid, the Emperor himself, walked out on stage.
“Roll it again,” he said with a sly smirk.
The appearance of Palpatine is a perfect example of how “Rise of Skywalker” churns the hype machine. It ignites fan theories and speculation, introduces numerous storyline possibilities, offers a meme-able cultural moment to share and taps into Star Wars nostalgia. And it happened eight months ago. We’ve had more than half a year to speculate about Palpatine’s return and what it will mean for the movie. Questions, expectations and constant marketing all feed the hype.
Within the past week, we saw another trailer. And this one brings the hype full circle. Kylo Ren descends into the depths of what seems like a Sith Temple. Palpatine’s voice is heard. So too is Darth Vader’s dark voice.
Only a week away and the hype still grows.
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” has so much hype surrounding it. You’d have to go out of your way to avoid seeing a promotional poster, merchandise or trailer promoting the new movie. Leaks are out there. Clips come out every day. Reviews are popping up. Much of the anticipation and hype is more than 40 years in the making. “Rise of Skywalker” will be the culmination of the Skywalker Saga, which includes the original Star Wars trilogy from the ‘70s and ‘80s, the prequel trilogy from the early aughts, and the more recent sequel trilogy.
But will the hype hurt “The Rise of Skywalker” when it’s all said and done?
“Rise of Skywalker” is already receiving mixed reviews. One day of monitoring Twitter takes on the film showed it could be either the best Star Wars film of all the time or the worst, the most decisive film or the most convoluted. Some reviewers said it was two films in one. Others said it was three films in one.
Promotion for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) was through the roof. “The Force Awakens” received relatively positive reviews (it still holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, the same score as “A New Hope”), with expectations having been lowered since the most recent Star Wars film, “Revenge of the Sith” (2005), wasn’t exactly adored by the Star Wars faithful (only 66% audience favorability score on Rotten Tomatoes).
But “The Last Jedi” — which came with the promise of finally letting us know what happened to Luke Skywalker — fell flat among Star Wars fans and some critics. Nine days before “Rise of Skywalker,” social media re-engaged in a dispute about “The Last Jedi” (which has a 91% score from critics but a 43% favorability rating from the audience).
So, what will happen with “Rise of Skywalker” (59% on Rotten Tomatoes so far)? Will it be greeted with a shrug or amazement?
The worry
According to director J.J. Abrams, there were no test screenings with the public. Cast, crew and anyone invited to the Hollywood premiere were the only ones to see it.
Still, there’s a star destroyer-sized cloud hanging over the film. There’s the aforementioned worry over the mixed reaction to “The Last Jedi.” Some who have read leaks are already saying the film will bomb.
Then there’s Abrams himself, who has famously struggled with endings. Some still curse him for the ending of “Lost,” a mid-aughts television show about survivors of a crashed plane on an island. To be fair, Abrams created the show and was casually involved afterward. Critics have slammed Abrams for how he handled the ending of his TV show “Felicity” (1998), too. His film “Cloverfield” (2008) was also heavily hyped but only earned a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 68% from the audience.
“I’ve never been great at endings,” Abrams told The New York Times. “I don’t actually think I’m good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”
He enjoys creating mysteries and beginnings. He’s made the concept of the Mystery Box — the idea that there are mysteries to open in any story — popular.
Don Schecther, owner of Charles River Media Group and a professor at Tufts University in the film and media studies department, told the Deseret News that Abrams does worry him as a filmmaker.
“I’m going to see it opening night, but I’m so scared,” he said about “Rise of Skywalker.” “I’m hopeful but so skeptical that this movie is going to be satisfying, because of Abrams, who I do like as a filmmaker. I’d be shocked if he can conclude a series. I know he can start one. You know, he just opened up a bunch of mysteries and didn’t resolve them. So I’ll be very curious if he actually resolves this entire saga.”
The concerns are only heightened by the online discourse. Social media trolls have flocked to the interwebs to share their takes — whether or not they’re believable is another question. Leakers have shared details of the film, though it’s unclear if those leaks are real.
One leak — regardless if it’s real or fake — could ruin one’s expectation.
Don’t hype
The hype is real. And fans should be excited for this new film. Star Wars movies are an event.
There’s a case to be made that companies should avoid hype, too. There’s a chance that too much hype, especially when you’re not totally confident with your product, could ruin the experience, according to John Staats, a former developer of the World of Warcraft game.
Blizzard, which develops World of Warcraft, would do little to hype its series of games. The company knew which games its fans enjoyed. So it would release a game and let the marketing do its own thing.
Hype can create false expectations among fans that the game, movie or television show will be one way, when in reality it is going to go another way.
“Hype really doesn’t work,” Staats said. “It’s not worth betraying the confidence of the audience because you’re working on (something major). Especially when it’s franchise driven. You don’t want to poison the water. You don’t want to break trust with the fans of any particular franchise.”
“Some properties have done that. They fail to deliver over and over. I don’t say who they are, but it hurts your chances in the future. It’s just a short game.”
Expectations are high for “The Rise of Skywalker.” Fans want a breathtaking “Star Wars” film to cap off the series. Those who disapprove of “The Last Jedi” want to see Abrams set things right. But what if it doesn’t meet expectations? What happens if the reality is so much lower than what we’ve built in our minds?
“Yes there’s tons of expectations attached to ‘Star Wars’ and Marvel content,” said Alisa Perren, co-director of the media and entertainment industries program at the University of Texas at Austin. “Within 24 hours of the movie coming out, there’s already a backlash to the backlash a lot of the time,”
She said she’s seen her students weigh whether or not to read movie reviews before they see movies, too, out of fear it could warp their understanding of a film
So how can we define a successful “Star Wars” film? Is it through box office numbers? Positive reviews? Success among the fan boys? If it gets streamed a lot on Disney Plus? This film could earn close to $450 million at the box office, according to Deadline.
There’s no true way to measure the success of the film. But fans can manage their expectations. A better realization can come if you wait for the surprise, like the last-minute heroics of a Millennium Falcon.
That is what the made the original “Star Wars” so great, after all.
“You hype something when you are absolutely sure that you’ve tested it internally, and you know that it’s going to work,” Staats said. “That’s totally OK because you’re safe. You know that the game is going to be good or you know that the movie is going to be good. Then you have free license. if you hype something and you do it far in advance they’ll totally forgive you if it’s a good movie or a good game so that’s when you do it. You do it when you know internally that, ‘OK, this is has been tested’ — that this is going to be fun for people.”