Shortly after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters, fans began petitioning Lucasfilm to release J.J. Abrams’ Director’s Cut of the movie. Episode IX was one of the most hotly-anticipated blockbusters of the modern era, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it didn’t quite manage to live up to those lofty expectations, but there was never any indication that the filmmaker’s vision was compromised in any way.
He previously admitted that he had final cut on The Force Awakens, so it’s hardly as if he’d agree to replace Colin Trevorrow at the helm of the Skywalker Saga’s conclusion if he wasn’t getting the same sort of creative control. That didn’t stop rumors from making the rounds, though, that said there was a much longer and substantially better version of the movie locked away in the vault somewhere, despite the director saying he had no interest in revisiting The Rise of Skywalker for a Special Edition.
Now, a new leak has revived the story by claiming that there’s a four-hour Abrams Cut that features countless scenes not included in the theatrical release. Of course, we should point out that the leak originated on Reddit from a so-called ‘Lucasfilm insider’ who worked on the Sequel Trilogy but deleted their account shortly after posting these purported revelations, so you may want to take this with a grain of salt. But if you’re curious, you can check out some of what they had to say below.
“Abrams initially had hoped to work with George Lucas. That didn’t work out. When George walked, J.J. had almost attempted the same. Bob Iger stopped him… Rey was to be the granddaughter of Anakin, eventually pushing for her to be Luke’s daughter he had with a fellow rebel after the war. Kylo and Rey’s relationship was more tragic, with Rey wanting to put him out of his misery and Kylo wanting to be free. Abrams had seen Kylo as a tragic villain and wanted to tell a dark what-if story to the redemption of Vader. Ben Solo would have always been redeemed, but only through death.”
There are obviously a lot of holes in this story, with George Lucas never being involved in any of the sequels in an official creative capacity, not to mention that most big budget blockbusters tend to be between three and four hours long when the assembly cut is put together before they’re trimmed down to a more theatrically-friendly length, so like we said above, it’s best to take the latest bit of Rise of Skywalker speculation with a dose of salt.
