Just when you think you’ve had enough of all this #ReleaseTheSnyderCut nonsense, we now have another one that’s about to get some attention. And that’s because J.J. Abrams is reportedly in negotiations with Lucasfilm to release a director’s cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That doesn’t mean it will 100% happen, but both parties are talking about it and if it did come to fruition, it’d be on a future Blu-ray release of the movie, since the initial one won’t include it.
At least, that’s according to sources close to WGTC. And given that these are the same sources who told us about Rise‘s Rey/Palpatine twist way back in September, and revealed that [SPOILERS] would be outed as a traitor in the film months before it hit theaters, we’ve no reason to doubt them when it comes to Star War intel. Not to mention they also told us Han would return in Fast & Furious 9 way back in the summer.
But we digress. Despite much division among fans over the last two films released in the franchise – Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story – there was still a lot of anticipation for Skywalker, as it was the culmination not just of the new trilogy, but the nine-movie Skywalker saga. The pic ultimately passed the billion mark at the global box office, but by Star Wars standards, it’s still considered somewhat of a disappointment. Both commercially, and critically.
After all, The Rise of Skywalker is officially the worst-reviewed Star Wars movie to date at 52 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The much-maligned Phantom Menace sits at 53 percent, for those wondering.
Abrams seemed to have little confidence in his film from the start, too. Shortly before the release of the movie, he admitted in an interview with The New York Times that he has far more success beginning franchises than finishing them. He also didn’t want to follow the same path Rian Johnson took with The Last Jedi. Those comments only added fuel to the fire of a fragmented trilogy that needed one consistent vision from the start and ever since the movie’s release, he’s been doubling down on the ending that left many wanting more answers.
Of course, it remains to be seen if Abrams and Lucasfilm will indeed release the director’s cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at some point. But the fact they’re talking about it indicates that there’s at least some hope of seeing an alternate version one day. We just hope it’s better than the movie we ultimately got.
