At long last, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and final installment in the beloved sci-fi series started by George Lucas in 1977, is upon us. Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t appear as if the movie will be able to live up to the expectations that have been placed on it, with director J.J. Abrams even admitting that he’s aware it isn’t going to please everyone.
After all, the filmmaker faces the tough balancing act of wrapping up story threads from multiple movies in the saga and also attempting to avoid the very divisive reception that greeted The Last Jedi. But at the very least, it’ll be nice to have many familiar faces back on screen for the Sequel Trilogy-closer and that includes Luke and Leia.
Yes, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are returning for one final appearance in the franchise, with the latter showing up via unused footage from The Force Awakens. But it seems there will also be a bit of de-aging going on for both characters, as some photos from the film have leaked onto Reddit tonight which show younger versions of the iconic heroes.
The exact context of the scene these are taken from is still a bit unclear, but it’s an intriguing glimpse at what’s coming our way regardless. And while it’s hard to tell from these blurry images alone how well the movie’s de-aging effects turned out, Hamill, at least, appears to look a lot like his younger self.
In any case, we’ll be able to see the scene in full later this week, when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker makes its way into theaters across the world. A huge three-day opening on home turf ($200M) is being predicted, but will those polarizing reviews change that? Time will tell.
