The Rise of Skywalker / WMG

New entries go to the bottom of the appropriate folder. And obviously, expect unmarked spoilers for all previous Star Wars material.

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Pre-Release

Story/Plot

The ghost Jedi will somehow fight in the final battle with Luke 'Avengers Assemble'!.

Jossed.

Snoke will remain quite dead, but we will get to see just a little more of him in a flashback or recording or the like.

With so many fans wanting to know Snoke's origins and identity and getting so angry at The Last Jedi for not telling them, this movie will at least offer a line or two in passing telling us everything we need to know; probably revealing that, powerful as he was, he was mostly a not-so-important Orcus on His Throne character sitting around sulking in the galaxy's unknown regions while Palpatine was running things back during the events of the previous two trilogies.

Jossed. He only appears as clone bodies in vats.

Darth Jar Jar's Plan.

Darth Jar Jar had been playing the fool, the TRUE Sith Lord behind everything since before Episode I, and has been letting Palpatine and Snoke run the show until he can enact the next step in his plan. It's now time for the next phase of his plan.

Jossed.

The remaining New Republic will regroup with the Resistance.

The remaining New Republic forces will team up with the Resistance with leftover ships, vehicles, ect, and they will battle the First Order together.

Confirmed, and also extending to seemingly most of what the Galaxy counts in combat ships that's not in the First Order already. And they battle Palpatine's Last Order fleet plus the First Order.

Someone will pull a Cosmic Retcon via The World Between Worlds.

This is more wishful thinking than a theory, but one of the characters will go back in time and change the past, altering the timeline to something similar to that of Star Wars Legends.

Jossed.

The AT-HS (All Terrain Heavy Scout) Will be seen in battle

Since the AT-HS Walkers did not appear in The Last Jedi, they might appear in The Rise of Skywalker. They would be used by the First Order to battle against the Remaining New Republic and Resistance Army. However, 1 would be stolen by the Resistance and used against the First Order (Quite similar to Return of the Jedi, when Chewbacca and the Ewoks stole an Imperial AT-ST on Endor.)

Jossed.

The Starhawk-class Battleship will be seen in action with the Remnants of the New Republic and the Resistance.

The Starhawk-class Battleship will be seen in a space battle. However, it would be the only one in action and it will be destroyed by the First Order TIE Fighters, or capital ships.

Jossed.

The Nissis-Class Clawcraft will appear in a space battle

The Nissis-Class Clawcraft will serve in the Chiss Ascendancy Navy and battle the Resistance Starfighters in space.

Jossed.

The Hapes Consortium (From Legends) will be in the film

The Hapes Consortium will help the remaining New Republic, and the Resistance. They will help fight off the First Order with their ships (Such as the Nova-class battle cruiser, Hapan Battle Dragon, Miy'til Starfighter, Miy'til Assault Bomber, Hetrinar, and brand new never before seen starfighters and warships). And with ground forces (Such as tanks, speeders, infantry, ECT).

Jossed.

There will be newer Y-wing Starfighter models

The Remaing New Republic and the Resistance will develop newer Y-wing Starfigters, and use themagainst the First Order.

Jossed. There are indeed Y-wings in the Final Battle, but they don't look new.

The E-Wing Starfighters along with other New Republic and Rebel Starfighters, Starships, and other vehicles will appear in the film

The E-wing starfighters from the Expanded Universe (Now Legends) Will be canon and it will serve the New Republic and/or Resistance Navy. Also there will be other Starfighters (like the K-wings, H-wings, D-wings, T-wings, Ect) will show up also in the New Republic and/or Resistance.

And the New Republic Star Defenders and other ships, and former Rebel Alliance ships (from Legends) will be in the space battle against the First Order Navy. There will be a ground battle with some New Republic Vehicles (From Legends) to Fight against the First Order Army.
Jossed.

The Infinite Empire/Rakatan Empire will be canon again

Well since Rakata Prime made it to canon in Star Wars: The Force Awakens Beginner Game and the Rakata in Poe Dameron 7: The Gathering Storm, it's possible that the Rakatan Empire will return to see revenge on the Galaxy with their ships, weapons and technology.

Jossed.

Centerpoint Station will be recanonized

Its true status as a superweapon will be discovered, and it will be used as a Hail Mary pass by the New Republic to do unto the First Order what they did to them. As before, it requires a Force-sensitive to properly aim it, bringing Kylo and Rey to the area, and both opposing fleets in preparation for a final battle. Rey reprograms the station to fire on itself, taking the majority of the First Order fleet with her.

Jossed.

The Star Forge will be canon again

The Star Forge (From Legends KOTOR) will be seen in the hands of the First Order, and used to produce more ships, vehicles, weapons, ect. In Fact, they will reproduced old ships, vehicles, weapons, Ect from the Rakatan Empire, previous Sith Empires, Eternal Empire, ect and they will produce new ships, vechiles, ect. But the Resistance will destroy the Star Forge (Just like the Republic fleet did in KOTOR).

Maybe, but the Star Forge is pretty similar to Starkiller Base from The Force Awakens. It could feel like a Death Star II thing and a rehash of Return of the Jedi...
Jossed.

The New Republic Military will be mobilized against the First Order in full force, and they will be under new leadership

After a Time Skip, the parts of the New Republic which haven't fallen to the First Order will instead be under a hardliner militant faction of the Republic, desiring to wipe the First Order off the face of the Galaxy. Initially a fringe group in the political climate of the New Republic, with the destruction of Hosnian Prime and the Senate, and therefore the loss of all opposition to said faction, this enables them to take advantage of the power void, and become the new governing body. Troopers in the New Republic Military (not the Resistance, they are allied, but separate factions) wear armor similar to that of the Old Republic, but with more vibrant color scheme to differentiate from the white armor of the First Order Stormtroopers. The gunships from Attack of the Clones will also make a reappearance. Vehicles from Old Republic era also return, but modified and upgraded to modern specification. With this militant government, they are then able to fight back against the First Order.

Confirmed, but not this way. There is indeed a massive force gathering against Palpatine's fleet and the First Order in the climax, but it's mostly people not affiliated to a particular army gathering there. There must be New Republic forces too in the bunch. They gathered only when it was made very clear that the Galaxy had to be saved from total annihilation.

The Yuuzhan Vong or something like them will become canon again

There was a reason why they came back in the (now Legends) EU — always having the Empire/Sith or an expy as an adversary gets stale really quick and Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams have shown unwillingness to deal with the prequel Era state of no adversary of imperial strength. So why not bring back the solution to that problem in the Legends Canon? Thrawn has come back as well, after all... And to add to that, there have been hints in Disney books that Thrawn found something in the Unknown Regions - which just so happens to be the place where the First Order has its base of operations...

Actually, the Vong were supposed to appear in an arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars that went unmade due to the show's cancellation, which automatically makes them canon, as all of the planned stories are canon. However, they're not Force-immune like they were in Legends, due to clarifications and changes in exactly how the Force works.
Unless they appear or Word of God starts saying so, the Vong are not actually canon. Also consider the complex backstory and divided fandom regarding them in general. Then it is unlikely they will appear, more likely the Disney will keep it simple.
Jossed.

The Grysk will make an appearance

In the novel Thrawn: Alliances, Thrawn mentions that the Grysk are approaching the galaxy and will eventually invade it, but that the Chiss Ascendancy is buying time for the Empire. Perhaps the Grysk invasion was delayed by the Chiss even after the Empire was no more, but now they have finally defeated the Chiss and can invade the galaxy...

And maybe Palpatine made an alliance with them...
Jossed.

The Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (GFFA^note for short) will be canon again.

The Resistance and what remains of the New Republic (the ones who supported the Resistance and believed Leia was right about the First Order as a threat) will form a new government. This time keeping the military so that they won't too complacent like the New Republic was.

Jossed.

The Millennium Falcon will be destroyed

It's the end of the Skywalker Saga, hard to think of anything more climactic than arguably the most iconic ship in the saga being trashed.

Well, I don't want this to happen since I saw Solo, because the film reveals that L3-37 was uploaded into the Falcon. If the ship gets destroyed, it will take L3 with it....
Jossed.

The Sith troopers are sleeper agents left behind by Palpatine

They will be activated, forcing the Knights of Ren and the Resistance to team up.

Unlikely, they have been confirmed to be officially part of the First Order, but still a possibility, considering that Kylo wanted to let the Sith die alongside the past...
Jossed.

There will be an Ironic Echo of the 'I love you' scene in ESB

A hurt Kylo Ren "I love you."An unrequited Rey "I know."

Confirmed, but not this way. It's after Han's spirit convinces Ben to pull a Heel–Face Turn. All Ben says is "Dad..." He doesn't even have to finish, Han knows.

The final shot of the Skywalker Saga will be...

Rey looks into the Force and sees all the previous generations of Jedi masters
- Jossed.
A CGI Leia hugs her now exiled son Ben
- Jossed.
Rey masters the Force projection, surpassing Luke's powers and training many Jedi all over the Galaxy with her projections
- Jossed.
A long time in the future and modern day, a potential new hero discovers a relic of the old heroes, like Rey in Maz's tavern
- Jossed.
Finn and Rose's son or another of their children join Rey's new academy (possibly on Ahch-To)
- Jossed.
Rey or another Force user is transferred via the Force in another time, connecting the past and future with a full circle.
- Jossed.
A call back to the ending of ANH where Leia handed out medals to her friends
- CONFIRMED. Maz Kanata gives Chewie the medal he somehow didn't receive at the end of A New Hope.
Rey will use a new power to awaken the Force in her best friends, 'Force-sensitivity' will be a thing of the past as the only way to become a Jedi.
- Jossed.
Many years later, R2-D2 tells the story of the Skywalker Saga to the Keeper of the Whills.
- Jossed.
Rey visits a dangerous planet, finds a lost child and holds her hand out for them, becoming the parent she waited for.
- Jossed.
A Bookend to A New Hope with a Jedi ship chasing down the last of the Empire followed by the famous Opening Crawl at the end that says "And so ends this story of a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." And the audience starts crying Manly Tears.
- Jossed.
A Bookend to The Phantom Menace with a ship leaving a Republic fleet orbiting Naboo.
- Jossed.
A child on a distant planet digs Anakin/Luke/Rey's lightsaber out of the ground. After hearing the story of the Star Wars saga from an aged C-3PO and R2-D2, the child prepares to use the saber to defend their village against an invading army.
- Jossed. Though said lightsaber indeed ends up buried.

The final battle will take place in the Force itself as the Dark Side can only be truly defeated that way

Jossed.

The final battle will just be a personal duel between Kylo and Rey

Not a bombastic battle, but post war and this isolated duel will be a battle of emotions.

Jossed. It's between Palpatine and Rey, and Palpatine's forces against pretty much the whole galaxy.

Kylo Ren will win and take over the galaxy.

A very long shot, I know, but that would galvanize the Broken Base and be the ultimate Sequel Hook for more movies.

Jossed. He dies, after a Heel–Face Turn.

Rey and Kylo will undergo a Face/Heel Double-Turn.

This is based on the shot of Dark Rey with her new double bladed red lightsaber. Kylo will find redemption, taking the Skywalker name, but Rey will turn in the process. Although, he may be able to redeem her.

Jossed. "Dark Side Rey" is just a vision.

The scene of Rey with a red lightsaber is just a vision

It will be Either Kylo Ren or the Dark Side of the Force tempting her.

Confirmed.

Kylo will attempt to make a last minute Heel–Face Turn...

Only to suffer a Heel–Face Door-Slam in the form of Palpatine taking control of his body.

Jossed. It happens roughly half-way through the movie.

Ben Solo will actually die.

Episode 9 is being billed bringing the "original Skywalker Saga to its conclusion". Assuming "original" Skywalker saga encompasses 3 trilogies at this point, this means after Episode 9 there will be no more Skywalkers to follow. Which means Ben will ultimately die, assuming it does not turn out Rey is a Skywalker too.

Confirmed. And Rey becomes a Skywalker, by adopting the name for herself with the approval of Luke's and Leia's Force spirits

The "original Skywalker saga" concluding does not mean there won't be a next generation of Skywalkers.

Even though Episode 9 is being billed to bring the "original Skywalker Saga to its conclusion", this does not mean the end of the Skywalker line; merely the end of actions Anakin and later Luke are responsible for. A new generation of Skywalkers will continue to feature, possibly with Ben or a future descendant.

It's the end of the bloodline, but now Rey assumes the name "Skywalker".

The film will end with C-3PO and R2-D2 telling the story of the Skywalkers to the Keeper of the Whills

As previously said, J.W. Rinzler stated on The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith that George Lucas told Rob Coleman that his intention was that R2-D2 eventually tells the story of the saga one hundred years after Return of the Jedi. Maybe they will honor Lucas' original intention for the saga's end and thus the film concludes with Artoo reciting the story to the Keeper of the Whills. Yeah, Lucas said that only R2-D2, but Artoo needs Threepio to translate him. And they could even reveal what happened to the other protagonists after the film to bookend the saga. This could be a nice ending, right?

And perhaps BB-8 and D-0 can join them?
Jossed.

Rey

Rey takes up the name Skywalker.

The title alone seems to imply that outcome, especially since there are no living characters at the beginning of the movie bearing that name. This could also be a way to make Rey a Skywalker without retconning the controversial reveal in The Last Jedi that her parents were nobodies.

Maybe Leia will adopt Rey so that she can formally inherit the Skywalker name and legacy.
CONFIRMED. She adopts the name by herself, although the fact that she does so with the Force spirits of Luke and Leia nearby with them having looks of approval at her implies they adopt her too, sort of.

Rey actually is a Skywalker.

It's not like the franchise hasn't gone back on such claims before,^note and it would certainly be within Kylo Ren's character to use such Blatant Lies to manipulate Rey in an attempt to turn her.

Unlikely. One, that Retcon was a result of George Lucas not planning everything ahead of time, whereas in this trilogy the storyline has been plotted in advance. Two, Kylo wasn't the one who said that to Rey; she herself said "they were nobody". Three, Daisy Ridley's confirmed that Abrams told her who Rey's parents were and that his answer was the same as Johnson's.
- It's been previously indicated that the current series has not been laid out in advance, that Johnson deviated from Abrams' intentions on a number of plot points, and that Abrams will in turn be retconning Johnson to steer things back to his original vision. Additionally, while it was Rey who first said they were "nobody," it was still Kylo Ren who said: "They were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money. They’re dead, in a paupers’ grave in the Jakku desert." All it takes to retcon it is a Certain Point Of View: Rey dismissed them as "nobody" because they abandoned her, and that Kylo Ren was lying as part of his emotional manipulation.
- Abrams's statement is that Johnson was "taking things in a different direction" but also that it was "very much in line with what we were thinking as well.". You'd also have to be ignoring Ridley's statement that Abrams version of Rey's parents was the same as Johnson's and a recent confirmation that the reveal isn't being retconned to make this theory work. And sure, you could say they were nobodies From a Certain Point of View, except Rey calling them "nobody" because they abandoned her goes entirely against her character: she never hated her family, she stayed on Jakku for fifteen years waiting for them. She wouldn't have done that if she thought they were nobodies for abandoning her, because she didn't want to believe they abandoned her at all. And it would be a huge stretch for Rey to consider the Skywalkers nobodies, because she's clearly in awe of their legend in The Force Awakens.
  - Is this the same JJ Abrams who told us that John Harrison wasn't Khan Noonien Singh? I'll take any pronouncement he has about a film he's working on before it opens with a salt mine, thank you very much.
  - It is. It's also the same Abrams who said he regretted lying about that, backed up by Daisy Ridley, who has said at various points that Rey's parents aren't important, and said Abrams told her Rey's parents were nobodies.
Jossed.

Rey is a Skywalker... Because she was cloned from Luke's hand

As a nod to the Thrawn Trilogy, it will be revealed that Rey was created by the Emperor from Luke's hand. Since we know Anakin's lightsaber survived falling into the bowels of Bespin, it's conceivable that the hand did, too. The Empire was still in control of Bespin, and there's no indication Vader left immediately after the Falcon's escape. So whichever poor schlub went down to get it for him found the hand, too, and delivered them both to Vader. At some point, the lightsaber was lost or stolen and ended up in Maz's possession, however the hand was successfully delivered to the Emperor.

Fast forward to the aftermath of Endor. The Imperial Remnant, perhaps at Palpatine's direction, is experimenting on Force sensitives. One such cell hires the Mandalorian to retrieve an infant of Yoda's species. Dr. Pershing is clearly connected to the Kamino cloning project in some manner, due to the insignia on his uniform, and may be attempting to replicate Force sensitivity in clones; either as an attempt to create a clone army of Force sensitives, or even find a way to genetically engineer Force sensitivity into normal embryos. At some point Pershing's experiments succeed, and are put into practice to create Rey from genetic material salvaged from Luke's hand (perhaps it was damaged, necessitating a female a'a X-23).

However young Rey's caretakers are unable to go through with whatever torture would be done to the poor girl to turn her to the Dark Side, and instead flee with her. They leave her on Jakku and take off in hopes of drawing their pursuers off, perhaps intending to go back for her once the head died down. Unfortunately, for whatever reason they were unable to, and Rey was left to grow up, never knowing her true identity.

This is the reason Rey is so unusually strong and naturally gifted in the Force: Not only is she of the Skywalker bloodline, but perhaps her potential was further magnified by genetic experimentation. And Anakin's lightsaber responds so readily to her because she was literally born to wield it.

Jossed.
- Well, being a clone certainly is, however her parents really did try to flee with her to protect her from the Emperor, as he intended to Body Surf into her.

Rey is the daughter of Princess Leia via the Force.

Rey does have more than a few similarities with Anakin, and retconning the controversial reveal in The Last Jedi could involve making Rey a daughter of Leia via the Force, the way Anakin was Shmi's son but had no father. This would admittedly bring back the controversial midichlorians explanation and virgin birth from The Phantom Menace but it would explain why Rey is as powerful as she is. Also, Rey's Force-based conception and birth would do a lot to disrupt the relationships between Han, Leia and Ben and give Ben Solo a reason to feel unwanted and jealous, feelings that Snoke or Palpatine(in whatever form) could easily latch onto.

See above. Rey doesn't need to be a Skywalker to be powerful, there were hundreds of Jedi who were powerful who weren't Skywalkers. (Yoda, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Ahsoka?). Additionally, this theory relies on Leia forgetting she gave birth (why else would she never mention nor look for her kid?), ditching her daughter on Jakku, and no one recognizing Rey (who wore the same hairstyle she was ditched with specifically to be recognized) or telling her she's family. It's been two movies with no mention of a second Skywalker heir, by now the excuses to justify this are thinner than air.
Jossed.

Rey is Anakin reincarnated to get rid of Palpatine for good.

Darth Vader's action of tossing Palpatine into the Second Death Star's reactor shaft didn't really "Bring balance to the Force" like the Chosen One prophecy stated if Palpatine is still around to torment the galaxy either in physical form or as a Force Ghost. Palpatine's continued existence would be a convenient reason for the Force to reincarnate Anakin as Rey and finish off the job for good. It also "rhymes" with what Kylo is doing - Kylo wishes to finish what Vader started, but Rey might land up wishing to finish what Anakin started.

Jossed.

Through time-travel/Force shenanigans, Rey will be the first Skywalker.

She will somehow be responsible for Anakin's birth.

Or she loses her connection to the Force, gets stuck in the past, and becomes Shmi Skywalker.
Jossed.

Rey was abandoned because she was a Skywalker or had something strange about her.

Her parents abandoned her, but everyone thinks that they sold her off for drinking money. The truth is they left her because they didn't think she was their legitimate child (perhaps Rey was born by the Force like Anakin, but Rey's "father" believed that his lover cheated on him instead) or felt something was off about her, so they ditched her and didn't tell anyone the reason why, leaving them to assume the worst.

Jossed.

Rey is actually the long-lost daughter/granddaughter of Palpatine.

Rey's parents abandoned her for drinking money, allegedly. But is that really what happened, or is it Rey projecting her fears without any proof? What if, in fact, she is a long-lost child of Palpatine, which he intended to be his vessel should he ever die? It would explain her strong Force potential.

CONFIRMED!

Rey was created by Palpatine in a manner similar to Anakin.

She's not directly related to Luke but she is a Skywalker.

Jossed, and in the new canon, Palpatine didn't even create Anakin.

Rey isn't a Skywalker.

Rather, she's a Kenobi. Obi-Wan and Satine did the deed in the most discreet manner possible, and Satine never told Obi-Wan about his son/daughter.

She really isn't. But she adopts the name for herself at the end.

Rey and Kylo Ren will have a child together.

They may do it the old-fashioned way or it may happen through their force bond since it can affect them physically. Though Rey is not a Skywalker, she will take the name to reflect her status as both Luke's successor and a de facto in-law.

Jossed. He dies, but see the post-release theories folders.

Rey will meet one of her relatives

Said relative, perhaps an aunt, cousin, or even sibling, will assure us that Rey's parents were indeed abusive drunks who didn't care to keep her, but will help Rey move on even further from it.

Confirmed, but... she's Sheev Palpatine's granddaughter.

Rey will use her nobody status in a moment of glory

For example...

Palpatine: Now Nobody can stop me.
Rey: I am nobody.

She finishes off Palpatine in whatever form

This! Please let this happen! After everything the poor girl has gone through, she deserves this! Bonus points if it happens exactly like that!

Jossed. She's absolutely the opposite of a nobody, being Palpatine's granddaughter.

Rey's parents are not retconned as Jedi or Force-users, but the reveal is someone else dropped her onto Jakku

Jossed.

Rey will discover not only did the Force awaken in her, she can awaken the Force in others

Even if you're not Force-sensitive, she can make you a Jedi.

Rey will save Kylo

Rey will save and heal a mortally wounded Kylo and give him a new purpose after the war has ended.

CONFIRMED...although he does die.

Rey's parents are truly nobody

As pointed on another WMG there where several other powerful Jedi who have no relation to the Skywalker family nor even come from a specific Jedi lineage. Rey will be the first of her family to be a Force-sensitive and became a Jedi. Her descendants and students will grew into a whole new generation of Force-sensitives taking the Skywalker name as tribute for Luke.

Jossed. Her father was Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious's son, and he chose to become a "nobody" in order to not be noticed.

Though we may see or hear a little more about them, Rey's parents are in fact dead and gone.

Looking back over Rey's weird "mirror cave" scene in The Last Jedi, I notice she specifically asked to see her parents, and not to see who they were. In other words, she wasn't asking who they were (which she already knew), but rather to see how they looked (and maybe where they were and what they were doing) now. However, the mirror's response was to show her nothing but a couple of shadows that merged and then got cleared away to reveal her own face staring back at her. While some interpret this to mean that Rey's a clone (which would make the girl in the mirror her twin and her only biological parent) or a virgin birth (like Anakin), I suspect the real meaning is much simpler: the mirror is showing Rey that her parents are dead and she's got only herself now.

While the mirror could maybe have shown Rey her parents' corpses, that would not actually have been what she asked to see: a dead body is not a person anymore, but only the physical remains, the person's soul having moved on into the afterlife. (While we don't know what happens to the non-Force-sensitive Muggles in Star Wars, it's likely that they share the same afterlife as the Jedi, but aren't able to reappear as Force ghosts.) As such, the reason the mirror didn't show Rey her parents is because they no longer have any physical location in this world; whether or not Kylo Ren got the precise details right (he was extrapolating from the memories he'd gotten from her through their Force Bond, after all), he was accurate enough in affirming to Rey that they're dead.

If we hear any more details about Rey's parents, it will only be from some other relative previously unknown to her, and if we get to see what they looked like, it will only be in some kind of flashback.

They're confirmed to be dead.

Rey's red lightsaber has no deeper meaning.

In the D23 footage, Rey is seen wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber. Naturally, this has raised speculation as to whether she turns dark or if it's a vision/dream. My theory? It's none of these things, she is simply separated from her own lightsaber and finds the red-bladed one and uses it because she needs a lightsaber.

In the actual shot, however, Rey's body language and facial expression are off in a manner that suggests there is a deeper meaning to this scene than her simply acquiring an enemy's weapon to use after the loss of her own.
Jossed. This is a vision from the Force, where she sees herself as the new Empress Palpatine.

The Dark Side Rey is actually a Clone.

In the first trailer, we see a cloaked Rey, wielding a Red Light Saber. What if that is not our Rey, by is rather a Clone of hers. I think it is pretty well established, Cloning exists in the Star Wars Universe, so maybe this is a Clone of Rey, made to be a Dark Side User. More so, the cloaked figure, we see Rey looking at in the October Trailer is not Palpatine, but her Dark Side Clone?

Jossed.

The Dark Side Rey is the original, and Rey herself is a clone

.An alternative twist; the Dark Side Rey is the original, created by Palpatine or someone else, and Rey herself is a clone discarded for her lack of potential or some other reason.

Jossed.

The scene of Rey wielding a double-bladed Sith lightsaber is a test to fight her darker impulses, like Luke in The Empire Strikes Back.

No way they're going to just have her want to become a Sith out of nowhere. Maybe a Force ghost of Luke creates the darker Rey to see if she has what it takes to be a Jedi.

You can gleam from the trailer that the scene takes place in the cave on Ahch-To, which was deliberately pointed out by Luke in Last Jedi as a place being strong with the Dark Side; Yoda said pretty much the same about the cave on Dagobah in Empire, lending much credence to this theory given the franchise's history of call-backs.
Kind of confirmed.

Rey is a Shan!

I'm not letting this theory die and now the English accented brunette jedi has a double bladed lightsaber just like everyone other woman in that family. You know who temporarily fell to the Dark Side? Bastilla Shan.

Jossed.

Rey discovered and learned about Force-healing by herself.

This could be the reason why Force-healing wasn't introduced in the previous movies or events.

Finn

Finn, Rey, and Rose will be in a love triangle.

As it seems like Finn and Rose are getting closer, Rey will show signs of jealousy, creating a love triangle between the three. However, in the end, Finn will choose Rose, because she will prove that her love is genuine once again, while Rey is really using Finn as a crutch because she really loves Kylo Ren and doesn't want to face it, but also doesn't want to feel alone again. A case of Last Girl Wins.

Alternately, Finn will choose Rey in the end, because she genuinely cares for him and is too disgusted with Kylo Ren to ever see him that way, and Rose will find happiness with someone else.
Jossed.

Finn's arc will be about vengeance

Rose is killed and Rey is conflicted about whether she can let revenge consume her friend.

Jossed. Rose lives.

Rose

Rose is Fridged

Rose is killed by Kylo Ren who does so to send Rey a message.

Jossed.

Rose is Pregnant

Rose hasn't been shown in many promotional material, and only from the chest up, despite Kelly stating she's filmed several large scenes. It's possible she isn't shown because it would be a massive spoiler if she has any indication she is.

Jossed.

Rose is the second in command for the Resistance or one of the replacement higher-ups

While Poe was shown to be substituting for Leia and becoming a leader, he has been shown going off with Rey and Finn. Rose likely will act as a substitute for him alongside Connix.

Jossed. Her exact role isn't stated.

Rose's mission will involve her retrieving Lando

It's not the first time she wants to drag someone back to the Resistance.

Jossed. Lando met up with them on his own.

Rose will be the first to realize about Rey and Kylo's Forcebond

In official material, Rose mentions Rey looks behind her a lot, like she's looking for someone or something.

Jossed.

Rose will lead an attack on the First Order, and also get back at Hux for the attempted execution

She'll try and bite him like in the deleted scene from The Last Jedi.

Jossed. Hux is killed by Pryde.

Rose is the liaison between the Resistance and their allies

Rose has been shown to have a way with convincing others to join the Resistance, so she would make a great liaison.

Jossed.

Rose will befriend Kylo Ren if he joins the Resistance

Rose is one of the most empathetic characters in the series, if he defects she'll likely be one of the first to believe him and take his side.

Jossed. They never meet.

Jannah

Jannah is Finn's sister.

Jannah is Lando's daughter.

The Visual Dictionary implies this to be true.

Jannah's tribe moved to Kef Bir after the Battle of Endor.

Her home moon of Kef Bir is almost certainly in the Endor system. Given the Empire's love of secrecy, it's unlikely that her people resided on the moon prior to Endor, but since they live there now, it's possible they moved in after the Galactic Civil War.

Pryde

Pryde was Wilhuff Tarkin's protegé back during the days of the Galactic Empire

Richard E. Grant stated on his Twitter account that he based his performance of Pryde in that of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in A New Hope. Estimating Grant's real life age, Pryde could have been easily on his late 20s during the days leading up to the Battle of Yavin, so perhaps Tarkin taught him?

If this ends up being the case, it could not be surprising if Pryde turns out to be a Complete Monster unlike Hux. It would personally love this to happen.

Kylo Ren

Kylo becomes an exile.

After the enemies' defeat, Kylo accepts his wrongdoings and cuts himself from the force and becomes an exile like Luke before him. Kylo ultimate fate is to become unimportant and a nobody like Rey was meant to be.

Jossed. He dies.

Kylo will die via Death Equals Redemption.

He already knows that he's gone too far, but something happens that he realizes is wrong and Rey kills him in their final battle, which saves the Galaxy from whatever and he thanks her for putting him to peace.

Perhaps that's why Leia and Rey hug each other in the trailer while crying. Maybe Kylo had to die and Rey is comforting Leia...
Jossed. He redeemed himself prior to his death.

Kylo doesn't die

Instead, Ben is finally redeemed and pulls a Karma Houdini. He and Rey realize that for there to be balance, there must be a new order, one that is neither light, nor dark. In the far future, he and Rey are revered as prophets and quasi-deities for the "god" of this new order, the mythical Skywalker.

Jossed. He dies.

Kylo has become an Orcus on His Throne

He's only using the power of the First Order to lash out at his enemies and Hux is the one actually calling the shots.

Jossed.

Kylo will be tempted by Palpatine only to have Anakin Skywalker appear to warn him.

Anakin's words will convince Kylo not to become Palpatine's apprentice, and this decision will be the start of Kylo's redemption.

Jossed. Anakin only speaks to Rey.

Kylo will have a Motive Decay

After killing Snoke then being rejected by Rey with his plan to create a 'new order' and kill the past, he has no real motive but revenge against Rey and her friends, until Palpatine reappears to spice the plot up.

Jossed.

A tortured Kylo will beg Rey to kill him

Jossed.

Palpatine reborn will take over the first order and Kylo will be forced on the run

Jossed. Palpatine does take over, but Kylo stays with them.

Kylo will be strangely merciful and spare Rey's friends...

If she agrees to join his training.

Jossed.

Kylo will aid the heroes but unlike Vader will refuse to accept he's redeemed

Jossed.

Kylo will 'win' his final battle against Rey

but he can't bring himself to finish her and the battle aprubtly ends as they choose to let go of their animosity.

Jossed.

Kylo will be inpaled with his own Lightsaber

Killed the same way he killed Solo and Snoke

Jossed.

Kylo will suffer a Disney Death.

During the aftermath of the final battle Rey will attempt to redden and bring Kylo back to the light side, only for him to sacrifice himself and save her seemingly dying. Latter During the victory celebration Rey will sense that Ben is still out there through the force.

Jossed. He dies for real.

Kylo will kill Palpatine the same was he killed Snoke

He will raise his lightsaber to kill, say, Rey, and Palpatine will sense he will strike down his true enemy... Only to be struck down by Kylo because just like Snoke, Palpatine was his true enemy.

Jossed. Rey kills him.

Kylo will kill Palpatine because he blames him for Darth Vader's death

Jossed.

The film will open with Kylo having completed a Heel–Face Turn and already joined the Resistance during the Time Skip

Because this would be a perfect, completely unexpected twist to throw at the audience early. Kylo will have a Stab the Scorpion moment during the film's opening action sequence, where he saves Rey's life from a stormtrooper, and it will be revealed that he has been working with the Resistance for some time. Of course, the conflict of the film will emerge when the re-emergence of a certain Sith Lord challenges his allegiances once more.

Jossed.

Palpatine will try to manipulate Kylo like he did Anakin...

Only to have Kylo Ren demonstrate some Genre Savvy, and double-cross him first. Kylo idolizes Vader after all: he would know exactly how Palpatine managed to play his grandfather, and be able to avoid making the same mistakes that he did

Jossed..

Knights of Ren

The Knights aren't Force users and/or don't wield lightsabers.

Early images of them don't show any lightsabers in sight...

* Jossed.

The Knights will each be returning with a First Order fleet in tow, and will be engaging in some political intrigue with Kylo Ren.

Among other things, this will explain where they've been the last two movies, and remind the viewers that the galaxy's still a pretty big place and indicate the First Order's fight with the Resistance has only been one of the many campaigns it's been pursuing across that galaxy. Their varied reactions to having Kylo Ren be the new Supreme Leader once they've been reassembled (some obedient and plotting to curry his favor, some chafing under his reign and having ambitions to seize the throne for themselves) will also explain why Snoke and Kylo Ren have always preferred to send them out on separate assignments and keep them busy with various First Order campaigns.

Jossed.

The Knights of Ren have already sworn allegiance to the return of Palpatine

General Hux

Hux will be a Dragon-in-Chief

Kylo lets the more experienced Hux make the military decisions while Kylo, hurt by Rey's rejection, has become a Orcus on His Throne and is more interested in petty acts of revenge rather than rulling.

Jossed.

Kylo Ren is either going to arrange for Hux to be killed, or will just kill him outright.

The two never did get along very well as political equals under Snoke, Hux has already tried to kill his new boss once, and Kylo is sure to get tired of Hux's insubordination to him before long. Kylo Ren will probably arrange some kind of Uriah Gambit for Hux, and if that doesn't work, will just Force-Choke him to death.

Jossed - Kylo Ren did not arrange for Hux to be killed. Allegiant General Pryde took care of that instead.

Hux will side with Palpatine over Kylo

Jossed - he sides with neither.

Hux and his most loyal troops kidnap Rey, for a plan to overthrow Kylo

Jossed - he may want to overthrow Kylo, but he never kidnaps Rey to do it.

Hux will assassinate Kylo

"Long live the Supreme leader"

Jossed.

Hux is possessed by Snoke

"Long live the Supreme leader"

Jossed.

Hux will be secretly helping the Resistance to overthrow Kylo

He will be demoted and form an Enemy Mine deal with the Resistance by leaking info to them.

Confirmed! He becomes the spy to get back at Kylo.

Hux will be killed by his own pride

Like exposing himself to be shot when Poe taunts him.

He was indeed killed by Pryde, but not his own. Technically Confirmed - the best kind of Confirmed.

The First Order

The First Order will reproduce and modernize old ships, vehicles, weapons, etc., and mobilize against the New Republic, and the Resistance

The First Order will reproduce Old capital ships, vehicles, super weapons, etc. from previous Sith Empires, and the Eternal Empire, and they will develop New TIE Fighters that are modeled after every Sith Starfighters (such as the Sith Starfighter from the Jedi Civil War era, and the Mark VI Supremacy-class starfighter from the Great Galactic War Era, etc.) and use them to battle the New Republic, and the Resistance. They will develop new vehicles, starfighters, capital ships, etc., and they will be us against the New Republic and the Resistance also.

Jossed. Palpatine supplies the ships.

The First Order's TIE Interceptors and the TIE Bombers will appear, but...

They will be reproductions of the Empire's previous models. Since the redeveloped TIE Bombers didn't appear in The Last Jedi, they might be in the 9th film along with the redeveloped Tie Interceptors. And they will be seen in a space battle against the Remnants of the New Republic, and the Resistance.

Jossed.

The First Order will salvage the remains of the Supremacy

After the Supremacy (Mega-Class Star Dreadnought) was rammed by the MC-85 Battlecruiser, the Raddus, the First Order will salvage the remains of the star dreadnout along with other ships, vehicles, ect and turn it into a new Star Dreadnought and/or a super weapon. And they use it against the remaining New Republic, and the Resistance.

Jossed.

At the end of all things, the First Order will surrender and make a treaty

And perhaps Richard E. Grant's commander will be the First Order's representative at the treaty.

Jossed. The First Order is completely wiped out and Richard E. Grant's character is killed.

The First Order and the Resistance will join forces to defeat the Emperor's secret fleet in the climax

Why? Evil Versus Oblivion. Death has made Palpatine even more unhinged than usual, and now he wishes to destroy the entire galaxy in an attempt to eliminate the light once and for all, instead of ruling it as before. This forces the Resistance and the First Order to come to an uneasy ceasefire so they can take on the Emperor together. This would also be a nice parallel to the New Republic and Imperial Remnant teaming up due to the Yuuzhan Vong crisis in Legends.

Jossed. The First Order joins the Emperor.

The Sith troopers are clones

Back in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren questioned the capability of General Hux's soldiers by wondering if Snoke should have better replace the stormtroopers with clones like the Galactic Republic did during the prequel era. Perhaps now that Snoke is gone, Kylo will replace Hux's stormtroopers with many clones who will form the Sith troopers.

Bonus points if Kylo opts to recruit an aged Boba Fett to serve as the DNA template.
- And maybe the now jobless stormtroopers will join forces with the Resistance to overthrow the First Order and defeat Palpatine!!!!
Jossed.

The Resistance

The Resistance is rebuilt or in the processing of rebuilding.

During the Time Skip, they've managed to gather some more allies, but they're still greatly outnumbered and underequipped.

More or less confirmed.

Rey will start training members of the Resistance.

Rey has gained a lot of strength in the Force and saved some of the Jedi Texts, she might attempt to start training the Force Sensitives among the Resistance.

She might have already done so to some extent during the time skip and we might see some of them.
Jossed.

The Resistance will be joined by the remnants of the Republic, and the Imperial Remnant (including several warlord factions such as the Pentastar Alignment).

Not only will we see some faces from the old EU (such as Garm Bel Iblis, Airen Cracken, Ardus Kaine, and Ysanne Isard), but we'll also see the classic Stormtrooper armor, classic TIE Fighters, Imperial-class Star Destroyers, even a new Death Star that, in a Shout-Out to How It Should Have Ended, will be nicknamed the Right Back Atca. On the Republic side of things, we'll see some more classic equipment as the Republic starts providing older equipment, such as T-65 X-Wings, Y-Wings, RZ-1 A-Wings, B-Wings, old Rebel Trooper equipment, T-47 Airspeeders, MC 80 starships (possibly including the Home One), maybe even some vehicles from the old EU such as the T2-B, V-Wing airspeeder, and the E-Wing, K-Wing, and even the Nebula-class Star Destroyer. Not only would it put the Resistance on par with the First Order, it would also be a great Shout-Out to fans of the old EU.

Jossed. No such thing happens, the Resistance is still lacking in resources, and no EU characters are alluded to.

Luke

Luke will come Back from the Dead.

This would be something NEVER seen before in the saga, a way of showing just how insanely powerful in the Force he is by having him regain his physical form — and also would be an opportunity for him and Lando to have the onscreen reunion that was never seen with he and Han. The movie is literally called The Rise of Skywalker, after all.

Jossed. He stays dead.

Luke will not return from the dead, but will be going viral.

See Jedi/The Force below.

He doesn't return from the dead, but the rest is Jossed.

Leia

Ghost Leia will be the only one to forgive her son

Jossed. Rey forgives him as well.

The Droids

C-3PO has red eyes because...

He's been hacked by a villain.
He's been given a "battle mode".
He needed new eyes while getting repaired and red was the only colour available.
He's straight up turned evil.
- Not only that, he'll build the Singularity Engine.
All Jossed. It's because he's reading the Sith language.

C-3PO will die

In the final trailer, when Poe asks him what Babu Frik is doing with him, Threepio responds that he is taking one last look at his friends. And why C-3PO could say that? Because he might be deactivated or destroyed...

Well, perhaps C-3PO is just getting modifications in a new body and thus this will be the last time he will see his friends with his original eyes or body.
Let's remember that L3-37 in Solo got her memory uploaded into the Millennium Falcon and thus survived the destruction of her body. Perhaps Threepio will endure the same fate, which in a way it would be ironic, as he previously assured Han that his ship (or L3 as we know now) had the most peculiar dialect in The Empire Strikes Back.
- Only that Threepio's body seems to be completely intact and functional in the trailer and that the location doesn't seem to be the Falcon...
Or he will willingly undergo another memory wipe as a kind of Heroic Sacrifice. His statement could refer to the fact that he will no longer remember the others. Perhaps the First Order uploads some sort of spyware into Threepio (this could explain the red eyes as well), and the only way to purge it is a full wipe. This would fit with Anthony Daniels' statement that the story behind Threepio's red eyes is a poignant one, and with George Lucas' original intent for Threepio and Artoo to survive to tell the story to future generations. If Threepio keeps his memories, there's no need for Artoo to survive, but if he dies, there's no one to interpret for Artoo. Plus, if Threepio was going to die, the trailer probably wouldn't tease that he was going to.
Another possibility is that his memory is being reset to before the wipe in Revenge of the Sith so the heroes can get valuable intel on Palpatine. Threepio will still remember Artoo, but he'll have no idea 54 years have passed since the end of the Clone Wars.
Yet other possible option is that C-3PO's memories aren't going to be modified at all. Instead, Threepio will go out to the battlefield like the others for the final fight to liberate the galaxy once and for all (hence why he appears wearing Chewie's bandolier and bowcaster in the one the merchandise posters). Maybe Babu Frik is just upgrading Threepio for the battle and thus his statement is because he doesn't know whether he will survive the battle or perish.

Jossed. He lives.

C-3PO will regain his memory of the prequel trilogy

This would be an excellent way to bring the saga full circle, and if he dies, as people suspect, he should at least remember all he's done.

No confirmation either way.

Palpatine

Palpatine returns by possessing Kylo Ren.

The Old EU has Palpatine transfer his spirit into a cloned body in Dark Empire. The production team will opt to throw out the clone part but instead have him use his powers as an immortal Force Spirit to take control of Kylo, giving him not just a new body, but all the powers of the Skywalker bloodline.

Jossed. He does clone himself.

Palpatine's spirit lived on inside a Sith Holocron.

Rebels has an ancient Sith Lady who survived after a fashion because her consciousness seemed to have been downloaded into a Sith Holocron. Since the current Word of God is that Sith Lords can't become Force ghosts, his survival inside a Sith Holocron is a plausible, canon-backed way for him to somehow be involved in this movie.

Jossed.

Palpatine's spirit has been impersonating Darth Vader.

In The Force Awakens, Kylo talks to his grandfather's helmet, promising to "finish what you started". This implies that Kylo is under the impression his grandfather would've wanted him to go down the path of the Dark Side, but this doesn't fit with Anakin's redemption and return as a Force Ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi. But if Palpatine had been communicating with young Ben, pretending to be Vader, it would certainly explain a lot.

Apparently confirmed by a preview clip where Kylo follows Sid's voice to a chamber on the ice planet where the Emperor claims that he was the voice in Kylo's head, as both Vader and Snoke, the entire time.

Snoke was a vessel for Palpatine

And Palpatine wanted Kylo Ren to kill Snoke so he could be free.

For what it's worth, Snoke's issue of Age of Resistance gives him this dialogue which has been interpreted as supporting the theory (he's talking about Luke to Kylo):
"One of the most formidable Jedi began his training here... He has earned my respect... and my fear... If I had your uncle by your side instead of you, the galaxy would have been mine a long time ago."
- Apparently confirmed by a preview clip where Kylo follows Sid's voice to a chamber on the ice planet where the Emperor claims that he was the voice in Kylo's head, as both Snoke and Vader, the entire time. This may suggest that Snoke was always a puppet of Palpatine to begin with...
Ultimately jossed. Snoke was a creation of Sidious to act as a Puppet King to the First Order.

Snoke was a failed Palpatine clone

And with him dead, we’re gonna see the real deal return in a working clone body.

Jossed. See above.

Palpatine will tell Rey of the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.

Just to get that out of the way.

In all seriousness, it's plausible that Palpatine survived using Plagueis's methods.
He will do that, but Rey will tell him to close his cakehole because it's totally obvious he's a shifty character and Rey isn't easily fooled.
Jossed. However, Palpatine does quote "The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural", another notable Revenge of the Sith line, to Ben.

Palpatine is not back and he will only appear as a hologram.

Possibly as part of a My Death Is Just the Beginning plot.

That would be cruel, and I'm pretty sure Ian McDiarmid has already confirmed his involvement. Probably jossed by the poster. Why would a Video Will be the centerpiece of the poster?
Jossed. He is very much present.

Palpatine's spirit is bound to the ruins of Death Star II.

The place where Palpatine seemingly died returning alongside Palpatine himself isn't a coincidence. Somehow, Palpatine was able to survive as a Force Ghost or phantom of sorts (A phantom menace, perhaps?), but at the cost of being bound to the Death Star II. It helps that like the Jedi who became Force Ghosts, Palpatine's body ceased to exist when he died, allowing for him to become a spirit of the Dark Side.

At some point, Snoke managed to reach out to Palpatine and create a Force link with him, as Kylo and Rey did in The Last Jedi. Hey, Kylo had to learn it from somewhere. Snoke then served Palpatine in secret, helping bring together the First Order from the remnants of the Empire hidden in the Unknown Regions, and targeted Ben Solo under Palpatine's command. Palpatine mostly abandoned the teachings of the Sith, and this time has sought to create a new group of Dark Side users, thus forming the Knights of Ren. He would, however, keep some elements of the Sith to build off of.

Palpatine, being The Chessmaster that he is, probably intended for Snoke to die at Kylo Ren's hands, and manipulated Snoke into driving Ren to a point where Ren would want to kill him. From there, Palpatine would then reach out himself and forge a connection between him and Kylo Ren, and would train him further in the ways of the Dark Side, so that Ren would reach his full potential with the Force and the Dark Side. He would then summon Ren to the planet of Endor, where the wreckage of the Death Star II lays. Palpatine's plan from there is to hijack Kylo Ren's body using the teachings of Darth Plagueis or some other Sith, and from there assume the mantle of Emperor once again. With a crippled galaxy reeling from the destruction of the Hosnian System, a destroyed Resistance, and a body giving him more power over the Dark Side than ever before, Palpatine's plan would be complete.

The one thing he didn't account for is Rey being found on Jakku, and her training in the Force by Luke Skywalker. With Luke made aware to events in the galaxy, he returns once more to save the Resistance from total destruction on Crait, and ascends into the Force, leaving Rey with the teachings of the ancient Jedi and the Resistance with a chance to rebuild. Rey and the Resistance will follow Kylo Ren to Endor, and the final confrontation between the light and dark sides will take place.

Jossed. He was resurrected on a Sith world named Exegol.

Palpatine's holocron will be the film's MacGuffin.

The First Order will search for the holocron in the hopes that unleashing Palpatine's spirit stored within will help them win the war, while the Resistance will be trying to destroy it. Both parties will find it in the wreckage of the second Death Star, where Kylo Ren will unleash Palpatine's spirit, leading to a climactic duel between Rey and Kylo Ren. At the same time, Luke's spirit will engage Palpatine's in the saga's first proper Wizard Duel, using more mind-screwy and esoteric powers than we have seen in the franchise so far. Because... Why not?

While some of the above is jossed (the spirit part in particular), some parts of the above WMG is in the finished movie. Kylo Ren has found the first MacGuffin (Vader's Wayfinder) on Mustafar at the beginning of the movie. And the Resistance will be searching for Palpatine's MacGuffin (his Wayfinder but it's not a holocron) and it is on the ruins of the second Death Star. To top it all, this will effectively lead to a duel between Rey and Kylo. But everything else is jossed.

Palpatine Came Back Wrong.

In a dark counter to Jedi ghosts, Palpatine will show up as a twisted spirit trapped in the Death Star's wreckage, only able to interact with the galaxy at large through the communications the wreckage is capable of. He'll attempt to body-snatch Kylo or Rey, and will be revealed to be using Snoke as the active leader of the First Order while he serves as the Shadow Dictator. By the end his Soul Jar will end up destroyed or, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and separating him from everyone, which might allow him to return in the far future.

Confirmed. His body is a mess to say it lightly and he wants to possess Rey.

Palpatine hasn't moved on because of something relating to his Observatory on Jakku.

As shown in the novel Empire's End, Palpatine had a secret facility on Jakku filled with Sith artifacts and what may have been an ancient Sith computer used for mapping the Unknown Regions. This suggests one of two possibilities. One is that one of the artifacts in the Observatory is an ancient Sith device that somehow allows them to continue existing after death, and the Resistance will return to Jakku to destroy it. The other option is that the computer is the only way to find the way to the planet, Byss maybe, where Palpatine was hiding the true mechanism that is keeping his spirit going. Option number two lines up better with Palpatine's attempt to get Jakku destroyed post-mortem; he wasn't just trying a Hitler-esque Taking You with Me on the empire that failed him, he was trying to make sure nobody would stumble upon the route to his true sanctuary and disrupt his plan.

Jossed.

Palpatine isn't actually going to be "returning" at all, but will instead turn up for an extensive flashback taking place sometime in the original trilogy.

Considering the misdirection we've received in previous ''Star Wars'' trailers, people really ought to know better by now than to take anything the first teaser trailer shows us at face value. Also, though the actor Ian McDiarmid appeared on the stage at the first showing of the teaser trailer to promote the movie, his character Palpatine doesn't actually appear in the trailer at all! Even that cackling of his at the end of the trailer was later revealed to be a recording made back around the time of Return of the Jedi, not new material for this movie. Moreover, since when do the people making these Star Wars trailers give away huge climactic plot twists in a teaser trailer?

More likely, what we'll be seeing is a flashback to Emperor Palpatine's reign during the original trilogy in which we'll get plenty of vital-to-the-present back story (possibly some project he set in motion back then that led directly to a great many of the important events taking place in the sequel trilogy), but nothing particularly climactic. The idea will be that even though he's quite dead and gone, Palpatine will continue to overshadow the present through the sheer evil ingenuity of his plans for the future, which are still posthumously being carried out according to his design. These flashback sequences will allow upcoming trailers to show him in the flesh, fooling people into thinking he's going to be resurrected somehow when he actually isn't.

His Evil Overlooker status on the D23 poster suggests otherwise.
- As does the the final trailer, which shows Rey confronting a hooded figure heavily implied to be Palpatine.
Jossed. He fully returns.

Palpatine will try to wipe out all life

Palpatine will rant about how even his greatest apprectice had a spark of light that his son restored, and the only way to destroy light forever is to destroy all life. Raising the stakes rather than just rebuilding the empire.

Jossed.

Palpatine will destroy the Knights of Ren

To demonstrate his new powers, these former apprentices of Luke will become fodder forhim.

Jossed

Palpatine will become more dangerous if he finds a way to become one with the Force

Jossed.

Palpatine will possess several characters

Jossed.

Palpatine is Rey's Father...Sort Of

We're going to find out the Emperor was Anakin's "creator", manipulating the midichlorians to make Shmi conceive, and that he did the same thing to Rey's mother, and that's why her parents "sold her for drinking money" or whatever Kylo said. Rey is the Emperor's daughter, and therefore Anakin's half-sister, which makes her Kylo's...great aunt?

Confirmed... kind of. He's actually Rey's grandfather.

Palpatine never died in the first place.

When Anakin threw him down the shaft, that blue light wasn't his death, it was just him passing through a shield that reacted weirdly to his Force Lightning. Palpatine actually survived the fall, but was badly injured. Then he survived the destruction of the Death Star II using the Force, and used Snoke as a pawn to rebuild the Empire. Of course, not everything went to plan. While the Jedi's return was foiled, the Force, as a result, created a new Chosen One in Rey, and Kylo Ren proved way too unpredictable even for Palpatine. Coupled with Operation: Cinder being an utter failure, Palpatine, for once in his life, was forced to play Xanatos Speed Chess, before coming to the conclusion that "if you want something done right, do it yourself", hence his big return.

Jossed. He did die in the Second Death Star as he told Kylo Ren.

Palpatine has given up on the galaxy-conquering business.

He's found his true calling as a pazaak player.

Jossed.

Palpatine had been setting up the First and Final Orders well in advance.

As in, the early days of the Galactic Empire, possibly even before. Being the megalomaniac he is, simply being the Galactic Emperor through a President for Life scenario wasn't enough for him, so he set up the strings for the apparent Offscreen Villain Darkmatter of the First Order and later the Final Order. This is the real reason why Star Wars: Aftermath depicts the empire falling apart in months rather than in Legends where it took years; a lot of the resources were being distributed to the planet-destroying weapons we see on Exogol. Originally Palpatine planned to one day make the galaxy more dominated by the dark side and even more totalitarian in his ever-expanding quest for more power, and the First and Final Order's surprising amount of resources was decades of future preparations in place. Since the current Sith order has existed in the shadows in secret, it wouldn't surprise me that some of the plans we see were set up centuries ago.

Confirmed.

Palpatine is Darth Bane.

After seeing the film, it seems that Palpatine wants Rey to kill him in anger so that his spirit can possess her body. If this is how he's been doing it all this time, then Palpatine was not only Darth Sidious…but Darth Plagueis, as well, and the real Sheev Palpatine, a young Sith Apprentice from Naboo, died when he killed his master's body and was bodyjacked by his master's soul. This throws an entire new perspective onto the Rule of Two. In Legends, it wasn't weird that Palpatine abandoned the Rule of Two and attempted to live forever instead of allowing his knowledge to be passed on to a Superior Successor; what was weird was that it somehow took 1,000 years for literally any Sith to put himself before his duty, even though that is kind of what the Sith are entirely about. Now, we can see that the Rule of Two was a lie, and that Darth Bane fully intended to be there to see the culmination of his millennium–long plan…but changing his Sith title with each new body allowed him to build up a body of writing and historical records that could convince potential apprentices that the Rule of Two was being faithfully followed while secretly preparing them like trading up for a new model of car.

Under this interpretation, the way that Palpatine treated his apprentices — as disposable tools to further his own agenda — is not the exception, but rather how all Sith under the Rule of Two have treated apprentices, while maintaining the fiction that this treatment was somehow unique. Had Darth Maul grown strong enough to actually defeat Palpatine, he simply would have taken the Zabrak body and continued unabated; same with Count Dooku. The loss of Darth Maul is no longer the loss of fully half of the Sith Order and a massive blow to Darth Sidious, who now has to start training a new successor from scratch; instead, it is now like breaking pocket knife. Damn, I was using that; guess I have to go get a new knife now.

This also explains why Yoda was able to speak with Darth Bane's spirit in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, even though Sith are not supposed to be able to survive death. In fact, at the time of the conversation, Darth Bane was still alive — and was currently the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.

Jossed.

Jedi/The Force

We will go into the World Between Worlds.

This would help explain the theories/rumors about flashback sequences of Luke and Leia as well as Matt Smith playing a younger Palpatine. Rey or someone else will enter the World Between Worlds and view the portals into the past. She could also encounter Palpatine here, who is trying to enter the World Between Worlds again.

Jossed.

Rey will restart the Jedi Order.

She might start training the Resistance Members who are Force Sensitives in the ways of the Force, maybe during the timeskip, maybe during the movie.

Jossed as far as the film is concerned.

Skywalker as the new term for Light-Sider.

Luke did say he wanted the Jedi to end, and Skywalker would be a good name for the new order of Force-users in his memory. This would also make the name The Rise of Skywalker more or less parallel the other third-of-a-trilogy films, Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi.

Jossed.

The Rise of Skywalker means Luke (and possibly Anakin, Leia, and Ben Solo) will "go viral" through a network of Force Bonds the new Jedi will learn how to forge with each other.

One complaint the fans have made in response to it being explained that Rey's rapid development of her powers comes from her Force Bond with Kylo Ren is that if one can be trained in the ways of the Force so easily, why didn't the Jedi masters just form Force Bonds with their apprentices and train them that way? A possible response to this is: maybe that's exactly what Rey and her students are going to do in this movie. Her Force Bond with Kylo Ren was forged entirely accidentally back in The Force Awakens, but considering how she's benefited from it ever since, it makes sense that she would try to figure out how to do it intentionally.

Luke Skywalker having already Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, he doesn't have much further to "rise" in that direction, but if he were to help Rey figure out how to forge more Force Bonds, he could infuse her and everyone with whom she's bonded (including Kylo Ren; one more way he can make good on his threat made near the end of The Last Jedi to haunt his wayward nephew forever) with his spirit and possibly all others from the Jedi afterlife. The teaser trailer has him saying something about passing on the wisdom of a thousand generations; how better to do this than by getting into all the new Jedi's heads via a Force Bond network? While this might involve all the Jedi who've ever previously lived, Luke Skywalker in particular would get the main honorary credit for helping Rey set up the network, and that would be the way he "rises" as indicated in the title.

Jossed.

Alternatvely they will use the remains of the Death Star to transmit a signal across the galaxy

Jossed.

We will find out who the Whills are.

In what would be a nice bookend to the earliest drafts of A New Hope, and would expand on what we already know about the Guardians of the Whills, the Shaman of the Whills, and the Journal of the Whills. Part of Rey's journey in The Rise of Skywalker will revolve around her seeking out the Ancient Order of the Whills. The mysterious Shaman of the Whills could make an appearance, as well as the Journal of the Whills (which will provide one hell of a Continuity Cavalcade to the Original Trilogy, Prequels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and the Anthology films, given what we already know about it). Rey will learn of the secret to eternal consciousness through the Force, complete with appearances by Qui-on Jinn (voice only, probably), Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke Skywalker, and most of all, Anakin Skywalker with whom Rey will receive guidance from. We could probably make a return to Jedha (the ruins of it, more likely). There'll also be some sort of parting message about how darkness and light need each other to survive, and something about the ultimate will of the Force.

Jossed.

The Force will cease to exist.

This is a crazy one, but maybe it happens that in the end, Rey and Kylo conclude that the best way to end the conflict of the Jedi and the Sith is to make the Force cease to exist, thus rendering the Jedi and Sith powerless and unable to continue with their conflict and stopping any individual from being born Force-sensitive. As Qui-Gon said The Phantom Menace, as long there are midi-chlorians, life continues, right?

If we consider that the official description of the upcoming Project Luminous hints that something in the Force will change, to not say itself as whole, this may be a possibility...
- Unlikely. Luke declared in The Last Jedi that the Force is more than just the Jedi and the Sith. It appears to be a fundamental force^noteOnly 35% pun intended of nature in the Star Wars galaxy. They might as well declare that they are going to make gravity cease to exist.
Jossed.

Zorri Bliss

Keri Russell's character is Rey's mother.

Not my theory, but it's been circulating in some parts of the Internet.

It certainly helps that Keri Russell and Daisy Ridley look a LOT alike.
Jossed.

Zorri is not Rey's mother but is still related to her.

Possibly a sister, aunt, clone template, etc.

Jossed.

Zorri Bliss is Q'ira's daughter.

I mean, have you seen how similar Keri Russell looks to Emilia Clarke as well as Daisy Ridley?

Well, there's no indication that Qi'ra's surname is Bliss, but Qi'ra never mentions what her surname is (if she knew, as Han didn't knew his own). And anyway, who says that Zorri Bliss is not a bounty hunting nickname?
Jossed.

Zorri Bliss is secretly one of the Knights of Ren, and she's the one holding the double-bladed red saber in the second trailer.

Considering how similar their actresses look, that shot that seemed to be Rey going dark is actually of Zorri Bliss revealing her true colors, so to speak. It would make an excellent Call-Back to The Phantom Menace's trick of having Kiera Knightley stand in for Natalie Portman as a decoy Queen Amidala.

Jossed.

Planets/Areas

We will return to Tatooine.

As Maul puts it, it starts and ends on the desert planet with twin suns. The movie could end with Rey returning to Tatooine and watching the binary sunset.

CONFIRMED. Rey goes to Tatooine to bury the Skywalker lightsabers in the sand on the Lars homestead and watches the binary sunset.

Rey went to Batuu to fix her lightsaber

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge includes Savi's workshop, where guests can build their own lightsabers.

Kef Bir is...

Another one of the gas giant Endor's moons. According to Wookieepedia it has at least nine, and since they've said it's a moon and the Death Star II's wreckage crashed there, it's almost certainly in the Endor system.

Other Returning Characters

If we're going back to Endor, that can only mean one thing...

EWOKS. Bonus points if Warwick T. Davis reprises Wicket.

It seems that Warwick WILL return to play Wicket in the film. A behind-the-scenes featurette showing different moments during the filming of the films has been uploaded on YouTube and while the footage of Warwick wearing his Wicket costume may be old, it seems new by the fact that Warwick looks like he does now instead of looking like he did when he was 12 years old, the age he had when he first played Wicket in Return of the Jedi.
Ewoks are briefly seen indeed, Wicket included.

Kanjiklub and the Guavians will return

Mirroring Jabba's role in Return of the Jedi.

Jossed.

Ezra Bridger or another character from Rebels

There have been rumors of an older male character seen in a shoot in a battle scene wearing a costume identified as belonging to Ezra. Moreover, a shot in the final trailer shows a VCX-100(the same model ship as the Ghost) right behind the Milennium Falcon in a large fleet scene.

It could be Kanan and Hera's son Jacen piloting the Ghost.
Jossed.
While Ezra does not appear in the film, the ship has been confirmed to be the Ghost and the novelization features a voiceover during the final battle that reads "Ghost standing by". We aren't told who's piloting the ship, but an adult female voice delivers the line in the audiobook.

Boba Fett will appear.

This time on the side of the Resistance. Not only does he return with the Slave I, he also makes peace with Chewbacca.

Jossed.

The Mandalorian and the Child

The Mandalorian will appear, revealing that Luke asked him to safeguard the Child many years ago because he knew the First Order would see him as a threat, and attempt to eliminate him. With Rey now taking it on herself to carry on Luke's work of rebuilding the Jedi, the Child will be instrumental in the foundation of a new Jedi Order.

Jossed since the Child doesn't appear in the film. Otherwise, who knows what role the Child will play in the future...

The colossus will appear.

The colossus might show up as part of the Fleet that the Falcon joins in the trailer but just off screen for that particular scene to avoid potential spoilers.

Jossed.

Force Ghost Anakin will appear but will be played by Matt Lanter

Since many fans still hate Hayden Christensen, maybe Anakin could be played by his more popular actor from the animated series.

Jossed. Anakin was voiced by Hayden Christensen, and did not physically appear.

Lobot will appear.

In the trailer, Lando appears to be wearing the very same wristcom he used in The Empire Strikes Back to communicate with Lobot. We don't know how old Lobot is, and the last time we see him in canon he's still alive, so there may be the possibility that Lobot could return to aid Lando and the Resistance.

The only problem here is that John Hollis, who played Lobot in Episode V, passed away back in 2005. Unless Hollis gets recreated with CGI a la Peter Cushing in Rogue One or Lobot is recast...
Jossed.

Confirmed

The T-85 X-wing and the B-wing MK II will be seen in action.

Possibly not all of the T-85 X-wings were destroyed by Starkiller Base. So hopefully they will be piloted by Poe Dameron, while the B-wing MK II will be piloted by Finn and they would fight off the First Order Navy.

Partially confirmed. The B-Wing is indeed back.

The Rise of Skywalker will be the longest Star Wars movie ever.

Seeing how Avengers: Endgame clocked in at just over three hours in length and has the epicness to match (according to the Extra-Long Episode trope), it's no fitting that this movie should also run that long to close out the saga with a bang.

Confirmed. The official runtime clocks in at 155 minutes, which is three minutes longer than The Last Jedi.

Jossed

Jakku is the desert planet with the death star remains.

Jossed. The Death Star's remains are not even on a desert planet, but have crashed into an ocean. Presumably on Endor, if this is the wreckage of Death Star II. Furthermore, the desert planet we see in the trailer is per Word of God not Jakku.
- Jossed, the desert planet is called Pasaana. However Pasanna is part of the Endor System.

Post-Release

The orange saber and the rise of the grey jedi

Rey being “both a Palpatine and a Skywalker” along with both the light and dark side orders dead, means the door is wide open for Disney to dump the dynamic.

In the Fallen Order video game, the main character doesn’t necessarily have a strong connection to either side, and he’s sort of a ronin (independent samurai). He also has an orange light saber.

In Jedi Outcast, Katarn has an orange saber and no issues wielding both light and dark.

If you take the “past must die” piece of the Johnson film, with Disney’s desire to separate from Lucas, the already explored themes of potentially unaligned jedi, etc. the evidence starts stacking in favor of dumping the dichotomy in future plots.

Rey's father isn't Force-sensitive.

It's revealed that Rey is actually the paternal granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine. But her father doesn't seem to be Force-sensitive himself.

Confirmed. According to the novelization, he was a clone of Palpatine who didn't have Force powers.

Rey and Ben will continue their relationship.

Even though Ben performed a Heroic Sacrifice to resuscitate Rey, he's shown to have become one with the Force, and thus can potentially appear as a Force Ghost. Both The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker have shown that Force Ghosts can interact with the physical world — Yoda called down lightning to destroy the First Temple, and Luke both lifted his X-wing from Ach-To's ocean and physically grabbed his father's lightsaber when Rey tried to throw it away — and we know from the Darth Vader comic that Palpatine himself used the Force to impregnate Shmi Skywalker. This will allow them to still be "together," and allow the Skywalker bloodline to continue.

Ben and Rey’s kiss was tacked on in post production

Simply put, reylo has been a Vocal Minority ship since Kylo Ren unmasked in the Force Awakens, and has had a very prominent presence on social media, as with any modern company Disney is going to visit social media sights to get an idea of what their audience wants, they see a large group of people wanting Kylo Ren and Rey romantically involved, but it Ben was already slated to be killed off, so they decided to edit the scene so that after reviving Rey with his remaining life force the two kiss before Ben fades from existence.

The thing Finn wanted to tell Rey was that he loved her.

Until Finn and Poe got their own love interests in this movie, there was a bit of a Love Triangle thing going on. As evidenced by how hostile the two were toward each other for a bit of the movie. Also given the context of the time he tried to tell her, he probably intended for it to be a Dying Declaration of Love. This was dropped once he received a new love interest and never brought up again.

Jossed. Word of God confirms that Finn wanted to tell Rey that he's showing signs of Force-Sensitivity.

Pryde always knew about Snoke

Pryde, and presumably at least some of the othe First Order founders, was part of the Palpatine cult. Snoke's otherwise unexplained position as Supreme Leader makes perfect sense if they knew he was Palpatine's meat puppet all along.

So Pryde was The Man in Front of the Man for Snoke, and Palpatine was The Man Behind the Man for Pryde?

Rey's other parent was a Shan

The yellow lightsaber completes her look as a Bastila copy. In Legends it was established that Bastila's descendants follow Identical Grandson to an absurd degree (and incidentally follow a matrilineal naming tradition). The art book establishes that Revan, or at least a Sith by that name, is canon; trying to hijack that bloodline would explain a lot about Palpatine's focus on Rey as a vessel.

Snoke was made in the image of Plagueis

From the time we first saw him in The Force Awakens fans had speculated that Snoke WAS Plagueis, largely based on his resemblance to depictions of the character. Now that we know that Palpatine literally created Snoke, perhaps he intentionally designed him as a twisted version of his old master. Palpatine would certainly take delight in making a being that is subservient to him in the image of a mockery of someone whom he used to be subservient to.

Even better, Snoke was made from the combined DNA of the Empire's greatest military and political leaders

He's clearly not just a clone of Palpatine. And if the Emperor were unable to lead his forces, he would need someone that Imperial top brass would want to follow. So why not make him everyone that they'd follow?

So he's basically Serpentor? That would explain a lot...

Building off the above, Snoke was created by Yuuzahn Vong gene-splicing tech

The Vong demonstrated similar capabilities in Legends, blending their own life forms with vornskrs to make special hunting dogs for themselves. And Snoke's origins are said to lie somewhere in the Unknown Regions. From a Certain Point of View, this would make that claim true.

Palpatine always planned to use his own descendants to make himself immortal.

He likely realized at some point that his body was only going to last so long, so he intentionally created his son as a replacement body for when the inevitable happened. However, as posited above, Sheev Jr. wasn't Force-Sensitive, which made him useless as a vessel, but he was allowed to live despite that because there was a high possibility that he would produce a Force-Sensitive grandchild instead, though he was still kept out of the way, leading to him escaping and hiding Rey because he knew exactly what was in store for his daughter. If Palpatine had succeeded in taking over Rey's body, he would have eventually produced another child once her body began to wear out, then possess that child, with the cycle continuously repeating essentially until the end of time.

Except Palpatine's goal wasn't to possess Rey, it was for his spirit and all other Sith spirits to enter her, witht he implication this is how the Rule of 2 works to begin with.
- The implication was that Palpatine would override Rey's personality.

Finn will be Rey's first apprentice.

Word of God confirms that Finn was trying to tell Rey about his newly discovered Force-Sensitiviy. Since she's going to need to find people for the New Jedi Order she will be creating, her Force-Sensitive best friend is the obvious first step.

The Skywalker line still exists.

Side materials mention that Luke had a girlfriend, Camie, on Tatooine that he left behind when he left for Alderaan. Depending on how far the relationship had progressed and how recent the breakup was, Camie could have been pregnant when Luke left, and never had any chance to tell him. Since Luke never knew about his child, Vader and Palpatine had no way of finding out about them either, preventing Palpatine from corrupting them like he did Ben Solo. Luke's child eventually started their own family, and Rey's search for Jedi candidates will lead her to these "lost Skywalkers". If Luke's child stayed on Tatooine, Rey may find them very soon.

Camie wasn't Luke's girlfriend, she was Fixer's.
- According to Mark Hamill’s personal draft for what happened to Luke during the time skip, Luke Junior does exist, but he was accidentally killed playing with Luke’s saber.
  - Slight correction: Mark Hamill has said that for The Last Jedi, to get into Luke's grim, defeatist mindset, he acted "as if" Luke had had a child who accidentally killed himself with Luke's saber. But nothing indicates that he actually considers this to have happened.

Ben was dying already.

He'd just been thrown into a pit, after all, from who knows how great a height, strenuously climbed his way back out, had part of his life force sucked out, and been generally physically brutalized all throughout the film. Maybe he knew he didn't have much time left and wanted his last act to be ensuring Rey lived a full life.

Ezra is alive.

When Rey reaches out to the spirits of past Jedi she hears a lot of known Jedi responding to her call, including Kanan and Asoka. However Ezra is not heard. While it could be an oversight the inclusion of Kanan and the appearance of the Ghost in The Calvary implies that the reason he isn't heard is simply that he isn't dead. It's known that, assuming he survived the end of Rebels, Sabine and Asoka didn't retrieve him from wherever he ended up until after the Battle of Endor, there is no indication how long it might have taken them to find him, as far as we know Ben could already have become Kylo Ren by the time they returned to the New Republic, it's possible even that they were on the Ghost during the battle.

Rey will continue to be advised by Ghost Ben

And working together as one complete being, they will finally personify balance in the Force.

Snoke was clone from Darth Plagueis

Plagueis taught Sidious everything he knew, so Sidious would know in theory how to create life. As seen starting with "Attach of the Clones", a sample host is needed in order to make a clone. Snoke looks too dissimilar from Sidious to be his clone. More likely, Sidious used Plagueis' body and made Snoke from him. This would differentiate Snoke enough from Sidious, especially since no one knows what Plagueis actually looks like. It would also potentially explain why Snoke is so malformed, especially if Sidious cloned Snoke from Plagueis after Plagueis was killed.

Rey's Skill is From Ben

There's a line by Kylo where he states that he and Rey are "one in the force.” Palaptine even emphasized that the two had a special super rare force bond “unseen in generations,” presumably as an explanation for why things teleport around them, which I believe was the province of only the mightiest force wielders in the old EU. My guess is that training and possibly also power flowed through the bond as well, speeding Rey through her training because she’s essentially already gone through it once, so it’s more like remembering/ relearning than learning.

The novelizations of the first two movies state this explicitly.

The faceless men of the Final Order is made of clones of the original Sith race

Palpatine never actually set foot on Exegol prior to his resurrection

He may have overseen the Snoke project; but, he only ever appeared there as a projection. All he’s got to do is home in on all the Sith energy there to visit.

The Snoke project wasn’t created by Palpatine.

Darth Plagueis created it as a backup for if Palpatine failed him as an apprentice. Palpatine took over the project for his own means after killing his master.

Indeed, maybe Snoke is actually a clone of Plagueis himself. The most common Snoke theory can be true from a certain point of view.

Rey's grandmother is Sly Moore

She is the woman we've seen around Palpatine the most, and Legends occasionally suggested the two might've had an affair. The problem with this is that this would make Rey's father half-Umbaran and Rey a quarter Umbaran, even though she doesn't appear to be anything but human. Still, maybe Rey's enhanced reflexes are her Umbaran physiology kicking in.

Jossed. Her father was a clone of Palpatine.

Rey's grandmother is Ysanne Isard

Armand is back in canon, so maybe his daughter is too. Like Sly, Ysanne also seemed to have a relationship with Palpatine in Legends. Unlike Moore, she has the advantage of actually being human.

Jossed. Her father was a clone of Palpatine.

Palpatine used Plagueis's methods to create Rey's father

While Anakin wasn't Palpatine's force son, maybe Palpatine made his unnamed son this way. This has the advantage of removing the Squick of Palpatine having sex with a woman. Additionally, it vindicates episode 8's themes that Palpatine's force-created son never amounted to anything important.

Jossed. Her father was a clone of Palpatine.

Ben's vision of Han wasn't a "memory".

Han actually did communicate with Ben from the afterlife. In the ST, it's established that those of non-Jedi bloodlines can connect with the Force. And, while we've seen Jedi who've physically died communicate and interact with the physical world afterwards, there's been nothing to refute that non-Jedi don't also survive in some form after death. In that scene, Ben, no longer under Palpatine's influence, can now fully connect with the Light Side of the Force. And, in his time of need, he finds the spirit of the one he needs to make amends with and who never lost faith in him: his father. Besides, Han & Leia deserve to be reunited in the afterlife.

C-3PO now remembers the events of the prequels.

there has been a remark circulating that the restoration of C-3PO's memory in this movie was a wasted opportunity for him to recover his memory of the prequels, however during this movie he was never in any situation in which knowledge of what happened in the prequels would be usefull or relevent, so it is possible that R2 backed up his memory multiple times, and re uploaded them all into 3PO, and nothing that would prompt him to bring up the events of the prequels has next happened.

Rey will continue to use force lightning as a Jedi

In Legends, some Jedi were able to use force lightning without using the dark side, most notably Plo Koon. Considering hints that Rey will be a more grey Jedi, maybe she will continue to use force lightning.

Rey is a Skywalker on her mother’s side, but she is a descendant of unknown relative of the ones we known.

They must had other relatives, even if they never mean each other. Perhaps Rey's mother was the child or grandchild of a cousin of Anakin or even a descendant of distant relative of their.

While Rey's father is established to be a Palpatine, it's entirely possible that Rey's mother descended from an unknown Skywalker.

The Armourer in The Mandalorian gets captured at the end of Episode 8 and the First Order uses her tech to build their own jetpacks

So far, in all of Star Wars Canon, it seems like the only people who had access to jetpacks were the Mandalorians. So it would make sense, since she would eventually be outnumbered anyway.

Snoke was made by Palpatine, in the "test subject" sense.

Snoke as an individual wasn't created by Palpatine, but Palpatine did create him in the sense of building him bodies and cloning him back to life. Remember how Darth Plagueis could save people back from the dead, but not himself? In order to find the secret of immortality for himself, Palpatine used Snoke as his test subject and used cloning to bring his consciousness to new bodies. The Snoke clones are a Reiquarium to fill Palpatine's agenda. Given the state he's in, this hasn't been mastered yet. Snoke as we seem him is his own person, but Palpatine manufactured his body. This also ties into how in Legends cloning was used as a means of immortality, with one notably cruel example being Palpatine transferring the consciousness of Bevel Lemelisk to clone bodies so he could make him suffer for his failures. Since Palpatine has literal control over life and death for Snoke, he reluctantly accepts being the Puppet King.

Palpatine has had other children.

Rey's father is simply the last one to die. Given his age, if he was open to a relationship he probably had kids before his sixties-seventies. Rey's father has never been mentioned because either Palpatine losing these children was such a terrible event even he doesn't want to mention it and may be willing to kill his son because he survived over them, or, given Palpatine's character, he was the only one Palpatine didn't kill at that point. Either way, the Palpatine family has had such a Dark and Troubled Past Palpatine didn't want anyone to know about it.

I believe there is a comic that implies that Anakin was his child, but though supernatural means.
- Jossed. Lucasfilm has confirmed Palpatine did not cause Anakin's conception.
  - That still doesn’t rule out Extra Parent Conception. If so, the dark side is a path to many abilities many seen as unnatural indeed.

All of the Sith.

Palpatine wasn't really all of the Sith, it was just his ego shining through.

Or he was being metaphorical, given he's the product of and last Sith.

Rey's father is Older Than He Looks.

Palpatine's an Immortality Seeker and would have no scruples with using other people as test subjects to achieve that immortality. Rey's father was actually born when Palpatine a strapping redhead and not an old guy or post-scarring, and was used as a guinea pig because he's genetically close, and given the barbaric treatment Sheev gave him it's no wonder he was never mentioned and his son wanted nothing to do with him.

If Sly Moore was his mother, and he is half-Umbaran, this might make sense. Who knows how fast those things age?
Jossed. He was a clone of Palpatine.

General Pryde is a Great Intelligence Avatar from Doctor Who

The Doctor took the side of the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War and the Great Intelligence joined the Empire to hunt him down. It took until the Sequel era before the two even interacted, which is why Pryde stuck around so long. Pryde also used the Great Intelligence's powers to save Palpatine's life, reasoning he might be useful. Clara was in fact the one who put together the Resistance fleet to ensure Pryde would die and the Doctor would survive.

Alternately, the Great Intelligence actually played Pryde, pretending to be Richard E. Grant. The reason why Matt Smith was rumored to appear and then did not appear was because Clara warned him the Great Intelligence was in the movie, and he had to reject the role to survive.

The Whills are relaying the entire Star Wars Saga.

At last we know who the mysterious Whills are: a race of scholars from far in the future, charged by the Force itself to collect a history of the events that shaped the Galaxy. At some point after the Skywalker Saga is long over, much of this history has passed into legend (as in "Star Wars Legends") and the true facts of it have become diffuse and confused. The Force is now in balance after the Light and Dark Sides were unified by the Chosen One (Rey Skywalker), and it now seeks clarification of what's true and what's false. It conscripts the Whills to go out among the planets and people of the Galaxy and discern as much truth as they can confirm, searching for facts and evidence and discarding falsehoods and fancy. The Star Wars Saga is their presentation of the truth, for all time—a compilation of all they can authenticate. This explains why the Star Wars stories (the OT, the PT, the ST, Solo, Rogue One, CW, Rebels, The Mandalorian) are chronologically out of order: they're being told as they're being discovered and resolved as fact (in other words, canon). Star Wars Legends consists of stories that have been told but not resolved as fact, since every whit—every jot and tittle, as it were—must be preserved in the Journal of the Whills. Some tales, even the fanciful ones, are too good not to be told.

Ben Solo's fate is Cessation of Existence. He never become part of the Force upon his death.

Ben/Kylo gave his remaining life energies to save Rey. When he died, he simply faded away into nothing. We never see his Force ghost at the end, though we do see Luke and Leia's. Even Ben's grandfather is briefly seen as a Force ghost. This suggests that Ben never merged with the Force because there was nothing left of his life force. Ben is now Deader than Dead, so there's no way he will ever appear as a Force apparition to anyone.

The fact that Leia's body doesn't disappear until after the death of Kylo strongly implies that she was waiting to take him to the Force/afterlife. So while it doesn't totally disprove this theory, it makes it very unlikely.

Palpatine needs hatred to properly Body Surf.

Last time he tried to goad someone into killing him, it was encouraging Luke to strike him down in anger and hatred. He tries again with Rey, trying to get her angry enough to kill him so he can take over. Like in Legends Palpatine has essence transfer, but the caveat is that your killer needs to use the Dark Side. He can still live in a sense if struck down, but it comes at a horrible cost. This might be why he's in a corpse-like state when we see him; he inhabited Vader's corpse, but even if he wasn't already dying since it was done out of The Power of Love he'd have no control. Somehow they reconstituted him from Anakin's corpse or some Force trick was used to pull Anakin's remains out of the suit. While he probably still exists, as Rey killed him he's at best the devil on her shoulder, at worst a prisoner of her body. His boast that he is "all of the Sith" might be due to the Rule of Two seeing continual attempts at essence transfer into the apprentice's body. Of course, another caveat would be to actually take control of the host. Palpatine was strong enough in will that Plagueis couldn't take him over, and Sheev exists as a hive king of the Mind Hive.

Beru Lars made a cameo appearance at the end.

When Rey is burying the lightsabers at the old Skywalker farm on Tatooine at the end, a lady on a horse-like creature comes by, commenting that no one has been there for years. She looked a little like Beru Lars, or Luke's Aunt Beru, who, along with Uncle Owen, raised Luke since shortly after he was born. Perhaps that was Beru Lars! Sure, it's generally assumed that Owen and Beru were killed by stormtroopers in A New Hope. But all we saw were two feature-less, smoldering near-skeletons when Luke arrived at the homestead's wreckage (and he never attempted to do a DNA test or anything). Who says they were Owen and Beru? It could be that the Lars had radar to detect Sand People, and a well-concealed bunker. So perhaps those bodies belonged to Tusken Raiders that were taken out by an intruder-detection system, causing others to retaliate by burning the place. Or the stormtroopers did away with the Sand People themselves just to get them out of the way. Who knows, maybe there weren't any Imperial troops at the Lars place at all; otherwise, why would they have killed the Jawas and destroyed the crawler if they weren't co-operative? Note that the novelization says that the Jawa language was so variable that linguists gave up on it, so only Jawas could understand each other if they wished. Remember, Luke thought it was Sand People that torched the crawler, so they sure wouldn't be above doing the same to the Lars homestead.

The Sith have been mining Kyber crystals for the last thirty years

The Xyston-class Star Destroyers of the Final Order are armed with Death Star lasers, requiring rare Kyber crystals. The Sith have been mining rare crystals for thirty years from various planets in the Unknown Regions in order to prepare for their attack, along with the difficulty of navigating treacherous hyperspace lanes in the Unknown Regions.

Why does it have to be the Unknown Regions, Maybe some of the Kyber crystals from Jedha and who knows where else went to the Final order. (But, that might create some Plot Holes though.) Maybe they were also collect from the light sabers of the Jedi that were kill in Order 66 .

Jacen Sydnulla is piloting the Ghost.

He would certainly be old enough by the time of the Battle of Exegol to inherit and start flying his mother’s ship.

Rey would found a new Jedi Academy, which will feature among its students characters we have already seen in the Sequel Era to be Force-sensitive.

This includes not only Finn, who is Force-sensitive per Word of God, but also characters such as Temiri Blagg and Eila, who have been close friends with or at least friendly with Resistance members.

Palpatine is lying by omission when he says he made Snoke.

Instead, he and Plagueis made Snoke together. You ever heard The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis? He could create life along with saving people from death. We're meant to think Anakin might be said life, but what if he was the Force's answer to what he created, or rather what they created? Maybe Anakin is just the most successful creation? Snoke is a homunculus created by Plagueis and Sidious as part of their Godhood Seeker plans and to create a powerful servant. Anakin was either a later project they lost control of or the Force responding a few years later to the insult of Snoke's creation. When Snoke says he watched the rise and fall of the Empire, he isn't just being a Mouth of Sauron but because he's somewhere around Anakin and Maul's age and would be able to witness events first hand. His obsession with Darth Vader is because he's his brother in a way, or the Force's foil. The Snoke clones are a vain attempt by Sidious to replicate their success on his own, but without him they weren't up to snuff.

While Palpatine had Snoke serve as his Puppet King and Mouth of Sauron, that doesn't mean that's the only reason for Snoke's existence. Instead, he was repurposed as Palpatine's plans changed and he took the title of Sith Master. It's possible part of Palpatine's motivation for when and why he killed Plagueis was actually because he was afraid Snoke would be his replacement. When Palpatine died the first time he could have just ruled from afar as he was already somewhat of a recluse, but Snoke already exists so he might as well use him for something big. Plus if Snoke gets to play the role of the king chess piece, he'd be placated and more likely not to sabotage Palpatine's plans. By Snoke's death he went "screw it" and put any plans of creating a powerful servant or life form on ice.

"Skywalker" will be a Jedi title rather than a surname.

Rey takes the Skywalker surname and will go on to found a new Jedi order. When she does, "Skywalker" will replace "Jedi Master" as a title among Jedi knights. This is the real way Luke's name and legacy survives—by inspiring Rey and serving as a model for Jedi to follow.

Rey's father Dathan is a Modified Clone.

Hence why he's stated to be a clone, but doesn't really look like Ian McDiarmand. According to the novelization and extended material Dathan was intended to be one of his clone vessels but had both his own personality and lacked his genetic donor's Force sensitivity. We see Palpatine in a clone vessel that's a full-on clone, and his immense dark side power has caused him to suffer Clone Degeneration. Predicting that his essence transfer might cause this and already having experience with modified clones via the Kaminoans, Palpatine had one of his clone vessels genetically altered so as to withstand having his mind and Force abilities. The problem though was that these very modifications both let Dathan have a sense of self and prevented him from using the Force, so until he got around that he had to resort to the riskier standard clone vessels. However because he was at least a healthy clone, the Emperor couldn't get rid of him until he learned how to "improve" on him. Whether Dathan got the hell out of dodge before then or Palpatine died before he had his ideal vessel remains to be seen.

The New Republic isn't fully gone.

There may well have been Republic holdouts that used the time bought by the distraction of the First Order-Resistance pursuit in The Last Jedi to rally and fortify. The reason they weren't able to assist in this movie is that a significant portion of the First Order's forces were allocated to locking down and trying to occupy them, which in turn made the Final Order fleet such a tempting prospect for the First Order (but an embarrassing one to mention, and from the Resistance perspective this was the status quo of the last year so not worth mentioning — Separatist holdouts were a definite thing well into the Empire's reign, yet only really got mention when a specific holdout is a key part of the story). Of course, this meant that was passed for New Republic proper forces by the point of the final battle couldn't come because they were busy making sure the First Order couldn't pull in as much reinforcements for it either.

Sequel Theories

Possible Future Plots that could happen

Because of how the future of Star Wars will be happening soon, it can be highly likely of there being future plots that could happen

The future of The Skywalker Family with Rey.

Possible Future Villains

Because of how that Emperor Palpatine and The Empire are now finished, there are possibilities of what other villains that may pose a threat in the future franchise instead.

A New Villain that may want to take down The New Republic.

Possible Future Heroes

Since the sequel trilogy has already finished with Rey becoming a Skywalker, there are possibilities of what other heroes who could become future Jedis in the future franchise instead.

WMG / The Rise of Skywalker

New entries go to the bottom of the appropriate folder. And obviously, expect unmarked spoilers for all previous Star Wars material.

Pre-Release

Confirmed

Jossed

Post-Release

Sequel Theories

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WMG / The Rise of Skywalker

Edit Locked

New entries go to the bottom of the appropriate folder. And obviously, expect unmarked spoilers for all previous Star Wars material.

Pre-Release

Confirmed

Jossed

Post-Release

Sequel Theories

Previous

Index

Next