A couple years back, audiences were re-introduced to the wonderful world of Star Wars on the big screen. It took place 30 some-odd years after the conclusion of Return of the Jedi, and while the political landscape in this world had changed, there was still a big, bad organization, as well as an opposing force in the form of whatever our good guys have to offer.

In The Force Awakens, the bad guys came in the form of The First Order, and the good guys came in the form of The Resistance. The political landscape at the time was as such: the First Order was growing, gaining power and influence under the radar, and many in the Republic didn’t believe of its existence. As such, they needed to fund a Resistance on the downlow, but since hardly anyone was convinced of its existence, they weren’t able to allocate necessary resources.

By the end of the film, we saw the destruction of Starkiller Base, the planet-sized weapon that served as that entry’s Death Star.                                                                                                        

While at Star Wars Celebration, Rian Johnson, the director of the next episode in the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, filled audiences in on the current state of the First Order following the destruction of that huge base.

“Starkiller Base. Big loss. Big loss. But they did manage to take out the seed of the Republic, and that’s thrown the galaxy into chaos, and the First Order are jumping on that in the beginning of our movie. Very aggressively. Not sitting on their hands. They’re making some big movies at the start of our movie, so things are going to get dire.”

As to what those aggressive moves consist of, we can only look to our previously-reported rumors, which point to a potential conflict very reminiscent of what we saw in The Empire Strikes Back (there are some shots in the new trailer that also seem to point to that battle). While it’s very interesting to understand the political backdrop of a film, it is worth stating that the original trilogy never really focused on that stuff.

In fact, in The Force Awakens, the filmmakers made a conscious effort to shift away from the politics in favor of the emotional throughline of the characters. As such, don’t expect a huge exposé on the state of the galaxy in the coming film. All we’ll really need to know is that the First Order is striking.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, 2017!

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SOURCE: Star Wars