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Watch the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer from Monday Night Football

Walt Disney Pictures

With just under two months to go before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters, we finally have a new trailer for the much-anticipated conclusion of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

The final trailer for the film — which also goes by the episodic title Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker — premiered during ESPN’s broadcast of Monday Night Football, and offered yet another preview of the blockbuster sci-fi saga’s next installment. The trailer’s debut also marked the official launch of movie ticket sales for the film.

A Star Wars trailer debuting during Monday night NFL games has become a bit of a tradition, with both Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi both premiering new trailers during Monday Night Football in years past. Given Disney’s ownership of both Star Wars studio Lucasfilm and Monday Night Football network ESPN, the trend isn’t all that surprising — not as much as the content of the trailers, at least.

The new trailer for The Rise of Skywalker offers a preview of what’s shaping up to be the darkest installment of the sequel trilogy so far, likely to bring several characters’ stories to a close. Whether it will also confirm some of the rumors about Rey, the modern trilogy’s most most prominent and mysterious character, remains to be seen.

The saga will end, the story lives forever. Watch the final trailer for @StarWars: #TheRiseOfSkywalker in theaters December 20. Get your tickets now: https://t.co/MLbzRXrCJb pic.twitter.com/RLllQGme76

— Star Wars (@starwars) October 22, 2019

Set to be directed by J.J. Abrams, who returns behind the camera after helming 2015’s franchise-relaunching The Force Awakens, The Rise of Skywalker is based on a script co-written by Abrams and Academy Award winner Chris Terrio (Argo, Justice League).

The film’s cast brings back sequel trilogy stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, and Joonas Suotamo, as well as original franchise stars Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and Ian McDiarmid. Deceased actress Carrie Fisher will also appear in The Rise of Skywalker via unused footage from earlier films.

Newcomers to the Star Wars franchise in The Rise of Skyalker include characters played by Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Billie Lourd, and Naomi Ackie.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker is scheduled to hit theaters December 20.

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