Look, we have to talk about that feeling. You remember it, right? It was October 2017. Monday Night Football. The screen went dark, and suddenly, the Star Wars The Last Jedi new trailer blew the collective mind of every person who grew up swinging a plastic lightsaber. It wasn’t just a commercial. It was a promise. Or, as it turned out for some people, a threat.
I’ve watched that specific two-minute-and-thirteen-second clip probably fifty times. Maybe a hundred. Honestly, it’s one of the most masterfully edited pieces of marketing in cinema history, even if the movie it was selling became the most divisive thing since pineapple on pizza.
The trailer did something tricky. It leaned into the "Luke Skywalker as a hermit" vibe but twisted it. When Mark Hamill’s voice cracked saying, "I’ve seen this raw strength only once before... it didn't scare me enough then... it does now," we all thought he was talking about Kylo Ren. We were wrong. He was talking about Rey. That bait-and-switch is basically the DNA of Rian Johnson’s entire approach to the franchise.
What the Star Wars The Last Jedi New Trailer Actually Promised
People forget how much different the hype felt back then. We were coming off The Force Awakens, which was basically a warm hug of nostalgia. Then this trailer drops. It’s moody. It’s got these deep, saturated reds. It showed us the battle on Crait with those B-wing-style speeders kicking up crimson dust against a salt-white landscape. Visually? Stunning.
But the real kicker was the ending.
Rey says, "I need someone to show me my place in all this," and the camera cuts to Kylo Ren extending his hand. The internet melted. Was it a team-up? A romance? A total betrayal of the Jedi way? That specific shot is why the Star Wars The Last Jedi new trailer is still studied by marketing students. It used clever "kuleshov effect" editing to imply a connection that, in the actual film, happened through a Force-bond across the galaxy rather than a physical meeting in that moment.
📖 Related: Dragon Ball All Series: Why We Are Still Obsessed Forty Years Later
The Misconceptions That Still Linger
A lot of fans felt lied to. I get it. Trailers are supposed to sell you the movie, but this one sold a version of the movie that lived in our heads. There’s a segment of the audience that genuinely believes the trailer promised a "Dark Rey" arc that the movie chickened out on.
Actually, if you look closely at the footage, the clues were there. The shot of Luke looking terrified on Ahch-To? That wasn't him being a coward. It was him being traumatized. The trailer hinted at the deconstruction of the Jedi mythos, but we were all too busy looking at the Porgs—those little puffin-creatures that Disney knew would sell a billion plushies.
Speaking of Porgs, remember the shot of the one screaming next to Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon? That was the moment some fans knew the tone was shifting. It wasn't just "pew pew" space opera anymore; it was something weirder.
Behind the Scenes of the Marketing Machine
The trailer wasn't just a random assembly of clips. Rian Johnson worked closely with the edit team to ensure it didn't give away the "Burning of the Tree" or the Snoke twist. That’s rare. Usually, studios just hand the footage to a third-party trailer house and say, "Make it look cool."
Lucasfilm, under Kathleen Kennedy, was trying to bridge the gap between old-school fans and the new "Reylo" shippers. They used the Star Wars The Last Jedi new trailer to signal that this wasn't going to be a carbon copy of The Empire Strikes Back. Ironically, that’s exactly what ended up upsetting people. The trailer screamed "This is different," and when the movie turned out to be really different, the fandom fractured.
👉 See also: Down On Me: Why This Janis Joplin Classic Still Hits So Hard
Why the Visuals Still Hold Up in 2026
Even now, years later, the cinematography in that trailer stands head and shoulders above most of the MCU or even the later Star Wars projects. Director of Photography Steve Yedlin used a mix of 35mm and 65mm film. You can see the texture. When the trailer shows the "Supremacy" (Snoke's massive Star Destroyer), the scale feels heavy. It feels real.
We also got our first real look at the Praetorian Guards. Those red-armored warriors looked like something out of a samurai flick. The trailer featured a shot of them moving in unison that felt more like a dance than a fight. It set an aesthetic standard that, frankly, The Rise of Skywalker struggled to maintain.
The Practical Impact on the Fandom
If you go back and read the Reddit threads from the night the trailer dropped, it was pure euphoria.
- Theories about Snoke being Darth Plagueis went into overdrive.
- People analyzed the reflection in Rey's eyes to see if they could spot a red lightsaber.
- The "Force-printing" concept—where Rey and Kylo could see each other—was barely hinted at, leading to wild guesses about time travel.
None of those things actually happened. And that’s the lesson. Trailers are a separate art form from the films they represent. The Star Wars The Last Jedi new trailer was a masterpiece of tension. The movie was a masterpiece of subversion. Sometimes those two things don't align for the audience.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
If you’re someone who still obsesses over this era of Star Wars, or if you're a new fan looking back at the history, there are a few ways to engage with this specific piece of media history beyond just hitting play on YouTube.
✨ Don't miss: Doomsday Castle TV Show: Why Brent Sr. and His Kids Actually Built That Fortress
First, look for the "Teaser" vs. the "Official Trailer." The teaser (from Celebration Orlando) is much more abstract. The official trailer (the one from October) is the one with the Kylo/Rey hand-reach. Comparing the two shows you exactly how Disney shifted their strategy from "mystery" to "character conflict."
Second, check out the "Art of The Last Jedi" book. It contains the concept art that inspired the specific shots in the trailer. Seeing the evolution of the Crait battle from a sketch to that final, breathtaking shot in the trailer is a trip.
Third, if you’re a physical media collector, the 4K release of the film actually includes "The Director and the Jedi," a documentary that shows some of the stress involved in getting these visuals right. It’s arguably better than the movie itself for some people.
Finally, realize that the "trailer version" of a movie is a valid piece of art on its own. You don't have to love the film to appreciate how perfectly that trailer was cut to the "Jedi Steps" remix. It captured a moment in time where anything was possible in a galaxy far, far away.
The best way to experience it now isn't on a phone. Find the highest bitrate version you can, put on some decent headphones, and just listen to the sound design. The way the lightsaber ignition sound is layered under the music? That’s peak Star Wars. It reminds us why we all fell in love with this stuff in the first place, regardless of how we feel about the "Holdo Maneuver" or Luke's grumpy attitude toward green milk.