Five big takeaways from 'The Last Jedi' teaser trailers

A relatively quiet fall movie season is starting to heat up, and easily the most highly anticipated blockbuster movie of this final stretch of 2017 is the new installment in the main canon narrative of the Star Wars saga: Episode VIII, The Last Jedi.

This week we've been treated to a brand new teaser trailer, which like other recent teasers for the film appear to reveal a lot more of the plot than the initial commercials for Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Which I am not entirely sure is a good thing (more on that below).  Still, virtually nothing could prevent me from seeing this movie -- after all, I am an unabashed Star Wars fanatic. I've already bought my tickets for its opening weekend and have high hopes for it.

Here are some of my initial thoughts on what we've seen on this much-hyped event movie so far...

Serious tone - I am a little struck (and wary) of the brooding tone of the footage we've seen so far. One of the takeaways from the original classic trilogy (1977-1983) was that the darker elements were what made them great, especially in The Empire Strikes Back, but what is often overlooked was how funny and lighthearted those movies were, too. The prequels were humorless, which is part of why they failed so miserably to connect emotionally. Still, The Force Awakens looked very heavy handed at first until it turned out to be a totally fun romp once you sat down and watched it. So, porgs aside, I am hopeful that this installment won't forget to keep its sense of humor.

Adam Driver as Kilo Ren

Mark Hamill, front and center - After he was tantalizingly and silently teased in the grand finale of The Force Awakens, Hamill clearly has a much meatier role here. I have always thought he was so underrated in the original trilogy, particularly his soulful, more mature turn as Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. This could be a great showcase for him and my hope is that his character is not dispatched too soon or in a way that isn't fitting for his character.

As much as I adored Harrison Ford's performance in The Force Awakens, it was very clear that he wasn't planning to stick around long. Hamill's character could and should have a lot more to do, especially if -- as so many people suspect -- he is Rey's father.

Potential fate for Princess Leia - The tragic passing of Carrie Fisher has left a lot of questions marks about what would become of her iconic Leia character. She was somewhat sidelined in The Force Awakens, although she had been elevated to the rank of general. She did reportedly finish filming her role in this film and there will be a lot of pathos to watching what will likely have been her last on screen performance. What surprises me is how overtly the early trailers seem to be hinting at her character's death, most likely at the hands of her estranged son Kilo Ren (played menacingly by Adam Driver). Unless the shots I was seeing were out of sequence, it seems fairly apparent that she will meet the same end her adopted father on Alderaan did all those years ago. I suppose it'll be bittersweet, but I don't love seeing all the original characters getting killed off so matter-of-factly.

No Lando! What gives? - Which brings me to a particularly sore subject for me: my childhood hero Lando Calrissian. Once of the coolest and most complex characters in the Star Wars universe has been inexplicably cast aside for reasons that are a total mystery to me and most fans. Actor Billy Dee Williams, who originated the role, is game to return to the part (he just turned 80, and doesn't have all the time in the world), and Force Awakens screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has said that he doesn't believe the character is finished. Meanwhile, Donald Glover is playing a younger version of the debonair Calrissian, so it's not like he's being written out of the Star Wars universe. Of course, I'm still holding out hope for a surprise appearance -- even if it's only a cameo -- from Williams, but it appears that he won't get the fitting arc that so many of our other favorite characters have.

A twist towards the Dark Side - The new teasers also strongly hint to some sort of surprising twist -- which of course is nothing new to the Star Wars universe -- but the turn it seems to be deliberately suggesting is perhaps a uniting of Rey and Kilo as allies. For months now there have been rumors that director Rian Johnson was looking to take the Star Wars series into new territory and this would certainly buck the films' overall trend of good guys are good and bad guys are bad. One of the interesting things about Driver's performance as Kilo, is he did portray some more nuance and conflicted emotions than say Darth Vader -- who for most of his run was just about evil incarnate. But, that said, I'm not sure how I would feel about seeing Rey turn to the dark side.

Methinks the trailer's closing line -- "this is not going to go the way you think" -- is being placed prominently there for a reason.