New LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga trailer shows off its finest villains

The next game in the playable Star Wars franchise, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, is less than two weeks away. In preparation for its launch, a special trailer was released earlier today that’s much darker (sort of) than you might expect.

The new trailer, which debuted as part of the Future Games Show, features Star Wars fans’ favorite bad guys — of course, in LEGO form.

Featured in the game include villains from all nine films in the Skywalker Saga — not just Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, and Kylo Ren, but also General Grievous, Count Dooku, and even the vastly and tragically underused Captain Phasma.

For decades, Star Wars has thrived on its contrast between the light and the dark, setting its heroes against a vast array of villains. Over the past decade, this scope of antagonists has greatly evolved, presenting “villains” such as DJ in The Last Jedi who were technically neither good nor evil, but somewhere in the middle. Some of the villains depicted in this trailer as as bad through and through as they come, but we also know that the Vaders and Rens of the lot eventually earn redemption through acts of love and sacrifice.

Star Wars villains may not be as black and white as they used to be, but they’re still very, very cool. And occasionally shirtless? Are we to believe that you can actually play as Kylo Ren sans shirt in this game? We’ll just have to wait a little longer to find out.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will release on multiple platforms on April 5, 2022, including but not limited to PC, Xbox One and Series S/X, Playstation 4/5, and more.

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