New 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' teaser deploys fan favourite score

The final teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has dropped, and it's one for the fans of John Williams' classic scores.

Called 'Duel', the TV spot features a snippet of what is – surely – the climactic lightsaber battle between Daisy Ridley's Rey and Adam Driver's Kylo Ren, with the Emperor's menacing narration.

And as the waves crash, and the Emperor growls about the 'final word in the story of Skywalker', the dramatic strings of Williams' Duel of the Fates brings it all together.

The theme is a fan favourite – first heard in The Phantom Menace, when Ray Park's Darth Maul faces off against Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi, first recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices.

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It's appeared in various Star Wars scenes since, from movies like Revenge of the Sith to Solo, and also in the Star Wars Battlefront video games. StarWars.com named it the third-best piece of John William’s score ever, with only the title theme and the Imperial March ahead of it.

The teaser is one of two final trailers for the movie, the second being an emotion-packed three-minute featurette which goes back to where it all started.

It opens with the famous scene in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon being rehearsed on set, and picks out some fabulous, previously unseen footage of the making of the very first movies, spliced in with scenes from the making of the current trilogy.

There are touching moments aplenty, with footage of the late Carrie Fisher and Joonas Suotamo with the late Peter Mayhew.

“Episode nine will be the conclusion of a story 40 years in the making,” says director J.J. Abrams.

Tissues at the ready, you lot.

Analysts are predicting a US opening in the region of $200 million, and while that’s a little behind the previous two movies, it’ll still place it among the highest openings of all time.

Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid and Billy Dee Williams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker lands in the UK on 19 December.