A new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer is imminent, but when will it release? Over the course of the sequel trilogy, a clear marketing pattern emerged. Both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi received theatrical teasers in April of their respective years of release, special looks during the summer, and a final trailer in October (which coincided with tickets going on sale). So far, The Rise of Skywalker has followed that playbook; during Celebration Chicago in April, the teaser trailer premiered (along with the movie's title) and D23 served as the launchpad for a new preview in August.
As the Star Wars 9 release date draws nearer, Disney is going to open the promotional floodgates in a massive way. They already held the global reveal for the Triple Force Friday products, giving fans their first look at merchandise for The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and Jedi: Fallen Order. While it's fun to see all the toys and collectibles, what really excites fans is the chance to watch new footage from upcoming projects. In the case of Star Wars 9, another trailer should be on its way shortly.
Since The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi had trailer drops on ESPN's Monday Night Football, the expectation is The Rise of Skywalker will follow suit later this month. Disney has yet to officially announce anything, but our prediction is Monday, October 14. We will update this post with more information as it becomes available. For comparison, the final Force Awakens trailer came out on October 19, 2015, while The Last Jedi trailer debuted on October 9, 2017.
Releasing the trailer on October 14 would create a week of separation between Triple Force Friday and the Star Wars 9 trailer. Disney's thinking could be to keep the focus on the merchandise this week, before shifting attention to the trailer and tickets going on sale. It would be possible for these events to co-exist, but there's no need to cram them together and do everything at once. There's always been a buffer between the two, though the earlier Force Fridays took place in September. Disney's doing things a little differently this time around, which probably stems from them wanting to keep things incredibly close to the chest. Even by modern Lucasfilm standards, the Star Wars 9 campaign has been super secretive. They probably held off on the Force Friday reveals for as long as they could.
The trailer coming out in the next couple of weeks makes sense timing wise. It allows Disney to attach it to screenings of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, which opens on October 18 and then it can play in front of some of the bigger releases in November like Terminator: Dark Fate, Ford v Ferrari, and Frozen II. Not that this is a film that needs additional exposure, but it never hurts to play a trailer in front of titles expected to be sizable box office draws.
