Star Wars: Why did we hear Darth Vader breath in the D23 teaser?

At the end of the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker teaser shown at D23, we hear Darth Vader breath near its end. Here’s why that may be included.

At D23, Star Wars fans were shown a two-minute compilation of clips from the original and the prequel trilogy, leading into some new footage from The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment of the Skywalker saga, showing how they all culminate together.

We hear a voice over of an older Luke Skywalker saying, likely to Rey, “we’ve passed on all we know. A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight”.

We then see a few new clips from the upcoming movie, broken up with big white text stating “The story of a generation…comes to an end”.

We get shot of Rey and Kylo dueling with each other on top of what appears to be the ruins of the Death Star, along with one last voice over from Emperor Palpatine himself saying “You’re journey…nears its end”.

This is followed by a black screen, where we hear the iconic sound of Darth Vader breathing through his respirator, and then lastly, a shot of a hooded Rey wielding a red, double-bladed lightsaber.

The addition of Darth Vader’s respirator in this portion of the trailer is curious to me, as the second half of the D23 teaser is primarily consisted of new footage from The Rise of Skywalker, leading me to believe this my hint at the infamous Sith Lord possibly making an appearance in the film.

While Vader died at the end of Return of the Jedi, he has been subtly included in various parts of the sequel trilogy, including his grandson Kylo Ren being shown talking to his iconic helmet in The Force Awakens, and he can also be heard in the background of Rey’s “force vision” from the same movie.

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Being that it is the conclusion of the Skywalker family story and the main saga of films, it would make sense that the most iconic Star Wars character be included in it in some capacity. The only question is “how?”

My guess is that based on where he was included in the trailer, it would be in some sort of “vision” related to the Sith version of Rey that we see in the teaser’s conclusion.

It could also be because of a suspected connection that Rey may have with Vader and the Skywalker family, as it is theorized that the reason Kylo believed that her parents were “nobodys” was because she was actually created through the force by the Emperor in the same manner that Anakin was before he became Vader.

Alternatively, Vader could appear to his grandson Kylo instead. Kylo is in possession of his grandfathers old helmet, as seen in previous films, and its possible that he uses it to try to speak with the force ghost of Anakin, or more likely, he is speaking to the Emperor, who is impersonating Darth Vader in order to manipulate Kylo towards further the dark side.

While those are just a few ideas on how everyone’s favorite Sith Lord might be included in the film, I think the inclusion of his respirator is a clue that we will be getting a cameo of Darth Vader in The Rise of Skywalker. I’m curious how he will end up being used in the film if my theory is correct, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is due out in theaters on December 20th, 2019.