George Lucas’ Episode VII
A major part of the plot is Rey’s hunt for the second Sith Wavefinder, which will lead her to Emperor Palpatine on Exegol. It ends up being in the remains of the Death Star II, moored in the oceans of a planet in the Endor system. There’s a pleasingly Indiana Jones-esque feel to this storyline, thereby paying homage to George Lucas’ other great cinematic creation. But the homage actually goes even deeper than that.
This plot point is actually directly lifted from Lucas’ original plans for Episode VII. As recently reiterated by Disney CEO Bob Iger, when the studio decided to move forward with a new trilogy, the franchise creator offered his own breakdown of the first installment and it became a point of contention between the two parties that The Force Awakens didn’t follow it.
Part of Lucas’ narrative saw Luke and his apprentice Kira, who evolved into Rey, traveling to the underwater second Death Star to find the Emperor’s throne room, which held a powerful Sith artifact. Take out Palpatine’s throne room and put it on Exegol and you pretty much have The Rise of Skywalker.
Spot The Ships
When the Resistance launches their attack on the Sith’s fleet in the skies above Exegol, Poe Dameron calls out across the galaxy for back-up. At first, it seems that – just like in The Last Jedi – no one has come to their aid. However, countless ships soon arrive just in time to save our heroes’ necks. And as you’d imagine, many of these ship designs have been pulled from across Star Wars history. Let’s run through a few we noticed.
Most significantly, there’s the Ghost, the ship that Ezra Bridger and his friends call home in Star Wars Rebels. Others include the Crucible (owned by Hondo Ohnaka in The Clone Wars), the Shadow Caster (belonging to bounty hunter Ketsu Onyo), the Eravana (abandoned by Han in The Force Awakens), the Outrider (from the special edition of A New Hope) and the Colossus, which hails from the recent Star Wars Resistance animated series.