Although a lot of fans won’t want to believe it, the version of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that arrived in theaters was J.J. Abrams’ intended vision for the movie, even though petitions were launched in an effort to have Lucasfilm release his Director’s Cut despite there being no evidence that it even existed, with Abrams himself also admitting he had no interest in releasing Special Editions of his work.
With Disney’s time at the helm of the beloved franchise drawing no shortage of criticism, a lot of people are holding onto the idea that there’s a much better version of the Sequel Trilogy out there somewhere, with recent reports even claiming that the studio are considering numerous options that could see the last three movies removed from official canon completely.
One of the more credibility-stretching rumors is that George Lucas assembled his own edit of The Rise of Skywalker that’s vastly superior to the cut that hit theaters, but Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is actively withholding it from the public. Despite the alleged Lucas Cut existing entirely in the realm of hearsay and speculation, the latest addition to rumor mill is that the reassembled version of Episode IX includes dozens of scenes that were left on the cutting room floor that would completely overhaul the story to an unrecognizable extent, and that it could make its debut on Disney Plus.
“Kathleen Kennedy changed and deleted dozens of scenes during the first and second phases of reshoots and rewrites. It is described that Bob Chapek, the new Disney CEO, is pushing for the J.J. and Lucas cuts to arrive on Disney Plus some time in 2023 that will include these dozens of scenes, that will include the original ending of the film from one of the original cuts.
In one of the cuts of the movie Kylo Ren will be visited by Anakin’s Force ghost in the depths of the second Death Star. This is where Anakin was going to tell him the truth about Palpatine and the Dark Side of the Force, as well as the secrets of Darth Vader. Ren would be given an moment of clarity and turn to the light side of the Force and become Ben Solo once again.”
Of course, we’d advise taking all this with a pinch of salt. After all, it seems hugely unlikely that for one of his first acts as Disney CEO as the replacement for Bob Iger, Chapek would essentially admit failure when it came to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and release two completely different cuts of the movie exclusively onto Disney Plus and basically let the fans decide for themselves which one they preferred. But based on how haphazardly Star Wars has been treated in recent years, you can’t exactly rule anything out at this point, either.
