Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Will Kylo Ren Really Kill Leia?
Kill the past...
There's something very worrying about the latest Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer. No, it's not the suggestion that Luke Skywalker might actually be a legitimate bad guy, or that Poe Dameron might be in serious danger (or that the Porgs might oust BB-8 as the cutest character EVER)... It's the idea that Kylo Ren might be the force behind the end of Leia Organa's story.
When Carrie Fisher tragically died, the question of her continued presence in the franchise became one of the biggest conundrums in Star Wars movie history. We were told almost immediately that there would be no effects driven resurrection (a la Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One) and also that her story hadn't been substantially changed despite Fisher's death - with the biggest consensus being that her story would be tied up respectfully without a rash rewrite to kill her off.
But what if Leia was always designed to die in The Last Jedi? What if she is the next target identified by Snoke to expedite Kylo Ren's full transition to the Dark Side. That would certainly fit with the ominous voice-over from the trailer of "let the past die... kill it if you have to..." which almost feels like Ren is reciting a lesson he's been told is key to his evolution.
The fact that the mantra is cut with shots of him attacking his mother's ship and seemingly locking onto her as she looks sadly resigned to her fate. It's a clever, loaded edit and one very obviously designed to make it seem that she's in mortal peril. Given what he did to Han Solo in The Force Awakens, you'd be forgiven for being mildly concerned.
But you have to question whether this is really how things are going to go down. In purely narrative terms, the idea of Ken killing his mother - and severing another of his ties to the Light Side and the Resistance - makes a lot of sense. It's the only way he thinks he can realise his potential as a dark Chosen One (though he probably isn't one), and it's the kind of act of evil that would help Snoke turn him fully to irredeemable waters (which he already has a foot deep in).
The trailer seems to suggest that he will hesitate at the final moment, and won't kill her, but even that is no indication that he won't follow through with it. He hesitated before killing Han, overcome with emotion as he said he "knew what [he] had to do". In that case, his blade was hardly straight and true, but he still killed his target - who is to say that isn't what we are seeing again here?
On the other hand, it's a bit much for a trailer for Star Wars - a franchise that controls what information is released with a steely precision - to feature something so seemingly revelatory. We've seen Star Wars' misdirecting shenanigans before, and it almost feels like everything you expect to see is the opposite of what will actually happen. The trailer even outright states as much.
If you were a betting person, you should probably be drawn to the prediction that the attack on the Resistance will come early in the film (hence Kylo still wearing plasters to keep his face together), and while the blow might be pretty harsh on the rebels, it wouldn't kill Leia at that stage. And nor will it kill Poe Dameron, thankfully. They'll face a major set-back, but that's about it.
But then, while Kylo Ren may not kill his mother, there's no saying that she will genuinely survive the entire movie. The question of how she could when there's a whole other movie to film without Carrie Fisher is just too big to contemplate them simply retiring the character quietly.
Perhaps we'll see Leia used as a sort of totem for Kylo Ren's remaining goodness - he will balk at the idea of killing her, and when she ultimately falls, it will be the catalyst for him rejecting Snoke? That'd be a smart way to progress both of their stories, even if it means Carrie Fisher's Star Wars story ends with a sad note.