First ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Footage To Reportedly Premiere In April

After the release and success of Rogue One, Lucasfilm took the start of 2017 as the perfect opportunity to start dripping out information regarding Star Wars: Episode VIII, ahead of its release at the end of the year.

So far, we’ve been informed that Star Wars 8 will actually be called Star Wars: The Last Jedi, while we’ve also been given a brand new poster for the film, which debuted an ominous font, and writer and director Rian Johnson has been sharing a variety of images from the editing suite, too. One of which even showed him working on the opening crawl for The Last Jedi.

Star Wars fans are eagerly anticipating the release of the first footage for The Last Jedi, though, as they want to get a proper peak at what’s in store for Rey (Daisy Ridley), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaacs), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and Leia (Carrie Fisher). There have been a number of rumors regarding the potential release of footage for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Some of this speculation even insisted that The Last Jedi’s first trailer will be released during the Super Bowl.

Star Wars Newsnet have now insisted that won’t be the case. Instead, they’ve now alleged that the first footage for Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be aired at the Star Wars Celebration Orlando, which is due to take place between April 13-16. The website wrote, “Many people are betting that the first The Last Jedi teaser will be screened during the Star Wars fan event.”

But what sort of footage can we expect to see at the Star Wars Celebration Orlando? According to Star Wars Newsnet’s source it will be a behind the scenes reel that will also include a few shots and tidbits from the production. The insider explained, “right now they are hard at work on a new behind the scenes reel for The Last Jedi, which will be the first footage that we will see from the movie.”

Star Wars Newsnet took this as confirmation that no teaser trailer for The Last Jedi will be released before the huge event. The website also noted that Lucasfilm took this approach with both The Force Awakens and Rogue One, too, which suggests that it wouldn’t be a surprise if they followed the same path again for The Last Jedi.

Since both Rogue One and The Force Awakens released their teaser trailers and behind the scenes footage clips in April and July, respectively, with full trailers then coming in October, there’s a good chance that Lucasfilm will follow the same trajectory with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It has also been speculated by Star Wars Newsnet that if The Last Jedi trailer is shown at the Celebration event then it won’t just be aired for those in attendance, but it will be released online at the same time, too.

The above report and rumor would also fit in line with what Kathleen Kennedy told the BBC just ahead of Rogue One’s release date back in December. At this time the Lucasfilm president was asked when we might get to see the first trailer or footage for Star Wars 8, and while she didn’t give a specific date she suggested it would be in the spring.

“Well, pretty soon. We’re giving [Rogue One] a little bit of breathing room, and then probably heading into spring, you’ll start to see things.”

But considering the mass amount of anticipation surrounding Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm could probably get away with releasing the film without a trailer. This suggestion was actually made to Adam Driver back in December by Cinema Blend, and the actor was very much for it.

“I think that’d be bold. I’d love it, yeah! Then no one would know anything. The less people know, I feel like, the more exciting… the more of an event it is.”

[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]