Director Max Landis Breaks Down the New ‘Star Wars’ Trailer

Last night, during Monday Night Football, we saw the world premiere of the new Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer. In addition to fat, beardy Luke making hundreds of cosplayer’s costumes a lot more accurate at next year’s Comic Con, there’s a lot going on in the trailer.

You know what this trailer does that a lot of recent trailers don’t? It tells you what the movie is about and makes you want to see it, even if you’ve never seen a Star Wars film before.

We meet our hero Rey who talks about the power inside of her, a power which frightens her master Luke.

We’re shown that Kylo Ren is the bad guy, and his master Snoke is even worse.

And it ends with Kylo offering Ren the guidance Luke is afraid to give her, tempting her to the dark side.

None of this was missed by writer/director Max Landis, who took to Twitter to explain why The Last Jedi’s trailer is better at being a trailer than the trailers for Blade Runner 2049 and Justice League. Landis caused controversy when he called Rey a “Mary Sue” in The Force Awakens, criticizing her lack of depth as a character, but he seems much more impressed with the upcoming installment.

Landis’ mother, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, is a costume designer who was responsible for the iconic costuming in films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Three Amigos, as well as the video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. She also took a deep dive into the meaning and symbolism of the costume worn by Daisy Ridley’s Rey in the upcoming installment.

Landis is a somewhat divisive figure, but he knows a few things about movies, and it’s always worth looking at his insights when he does this sort of deep dive. Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be in theaters on December 15th.