All is as The Force wills it: Star Wars IX’s possible return to Jedha.

With the teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker revealed, the film seems to take our heroes on an adventure spanning the Galaxy. Will the moon of Jedha be one of their stops?

It is unlikely there will be a more picked over two minutes of pop culture in the coming weeks than the teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  As any good Star Wars teaser should do, it gives us a taste of what’s to come, shows us the faces of heroes we want to see, and leaves enough to the imagination for us to continue to speculate. Anticipation for the film’s December release will only grow, and not even a snap from the Infinity Glove will slow that anticipation down.

The trailer seems to provide the feel of a quest.  We see different locations, perhaps even those we have seen in previous films. One seems to be the wreckage of one of the two Imperial Death Stars. (Keep an eye out here on Dork Side of the Force for more speculation on that.) There is a very swashbuckling chase scene borrowing as much from Indiana Jones as it does Mad Max. And of course there is Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron apparently doing a Nathan Drake cosplay.

Speculation abounded a few months back when J.J. Abrams posted a shot of the end of principal photography for TROS (can we call it that yet? What does that even mean?):

The desert setting with Rey, Finn, and Poe seemed to indicate that indeed, everyone was trying to get back to Jakku. Taking a closer look at the new trailer however, the desert surroundings seem to have more in common with the hills and fallen statues we saw on the moon of Jedha in Rogue One.

Before Jedha City became the bullseye for Death Star firing practice, it was a place where people from around the Galaxy came to worship or honor the various ways they saw The Force.  A Holy Land occupied by Imperial Forces, it was home to the Guardians of the Whills like Baze Malbus and Chirrut Îmwe as they tried to protect the Temple of Khyber. Khyber of course not only powered the Death Star’s super laser, but also ignited the blades of a thousand generations of Jedi Knights.

Given the apparent “quest” nature of the story, iconic locations like a crashed Death Star, and a certain evil thought to be dead cackling in the background, Jedha seems like a perfect location to seek something important to how Rey will carry on the Jedi legacy.

Certainly some tome in the library she saved from Ahch-To will have some mention of a location as ancient as Jedha. The question now is what could be there that would have survived the destruction wrought by the Empire?

Whatever it is, all is as The Force, and J.J. Abrams, wills it.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres on December 19, 2019.

Is the desert of Episode IX the moon of Jedha? Is there something left behind to help our heroes defeat a seemingly immortal Sith Lord? Will Kylo Ren discover that sand is indeed course and gets everywhere? Sound off below, and let the speculation begin!