10 Burning Questions Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Left Us With

Will We Ever Find Out How Maz Kanata Had The Skywalker Lightsaber?

To their credit, J.J. Abrams and co. managed to answer many of the burning questions that’ve built up over the first two installments of the Sequel Trilogy. However, there is one major one that’s been eating away at fans for four years now: how the heck did Maz Kanata get her hands on the Skywalker lightsaber?

As you’ll no doubt recall, The Force Awakens saw Rey discover the saber in a chest under Maz’s castle. When asked how she got it, Maz enigmatically replied “a good question for another time.” This seemed to promise the audience that we would find out the answer in a future movie. But no such answer arrived in Rise of Skywalker.

The deleted opening scene of TFA remains our biggest – and only – clue. The movie was to have begun with Luke’s disembodied hand, and saber, floating in space. It must have been found by someone then, passed through many hands and eventually come into Maz’s possession.

How Exactly Did The Emperor Return?

When the film’s first trailer made clear that Palpatine was returning for Rise, fans began furiously theorizing the many ways that he could be resurrected following his death in Return of the Jedi. As it happens, Episode IX is entirely uninterested in explaining this. The opening crawl establishes he’s somehow back and that’s that.

Dominic Monaghan’s Beaumont Kin does offer a couple of explanations in one scene though, speculating that “dark magic” could be involved or possibly “cloning.” The closest thing to a definitive answer we get, though, comes from the Emperor himself, with a notable quote from his past.

When Kylo enquires how he’s still alive, Palps says: “The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” This is a direct lift from the famed “tragedy of Darth Plagueis” scene from Revenge of the Sith, which sees the then Chancellor telling Anakin Skywalker of the Sith Lord who had the power to master death. We can infer, then, that Palpatine has also learned this power.