Given that The Mandalorian has gone down pretty well so far – thanks in no small part to Baby Yoda – and hype is building around Ewan McGregor’s return to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, it looks like Star Wars is in rude health at the moment. On the small screen, at least. But as far as theatrical releases go, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may very well be a make-or-break project for the sci-fi franchise.
After all, fans are expecting a definitive end to the story that began in A New Hope, as the future for Star Wars seems pretty up in the air following Rise. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are no longer attached to their planned trilogy, while Rian Johnson’s own films may or may not still be happening. Even Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has flat-out stated that she’s unsure of what comes next.
Not helping matters either is the recent speculation surrounding just how heavy the reshoots for Rise of Skywalker were. And while it’s unlikely we’ll ever learn the full extent of what had to be fixed or changed, we do now know of at least one thing that was re-worked. And we’ll warn you now that we’re about to dive into spoiler territory, so bookmark this page and come back at a later date if you want to walk into the movie with a clean slate.
According to sources close to WGTC – the same ones who said Leia will be Rey’s new trainer in the film, Leia will wield a lightsaber and Rey and Palpatine have a “special connection,” all of which have since been confirmed – one thing that Lucasfilm changed during reshoots was Kylo’s death. Apparently, the way it originally went down made him look weak and they wanted him to go out on a better note. From what we understand, it’s still the Emperor who kills him, but the way the scene plays out was re-done in order to make Adam Driver’s character look better as he exits from the trilogy.
Of course, we imagine there was a lot more that went down during the reshoots as well and in just a few days, we’ll know if it was all worth it. And that’s because the review embargo on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker lifts on the 18th, while the film itself hits theaters on December 20th.
