Lucasfilm has released a set of short clips before the digital and home video debut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and one of them is the scene that shows Luke and Leia training together.
If nothing else, the last movie in the Skywalker Saga was packed with cameos and surprises. And while most of these instances were there just for the sake of nostalgia and didn’t really serve the plot in any meaningful way, we couldn’t help but geek out when they happened. Now, to incite fans to buy the Blu-ray edition of Episode IX when it comes out in a couple of weeks, Lucasfilm has decided to share some of these emotional scenes.
In the clip above, we see Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost encouraging Rey to accept her heritage as the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine. Before long, the old Jedi Master leads her to one of the huts on Ahch-To and gives her Leia’s blue lightsaber. Then, out of nowhere, the scene cuts to a flashback sequence that features a young Luke and Leia training together, and that’s where the Last Jedi reveals that the Princess of Alderaan almost finished her training as a Jedi padawan. We even get to see their young faces through the magic of CGI, though Leia is modeled after Carrie Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd.
We’d be lying if we said that seeing a young version of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill from the Original Trilogy era didn’t almost bring us to tears. Add that to John Williams’ beautiful score in the background from A New Hope (“Princess Leia’s Theme) and you’ll have one of the movie’s biggest gut-punching moments.
It’s still difficult to come to terms with Carrie Fisher’s tragic death, but we’re glad that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker managed to pay tribute to her by utilizing raw footage and writing the script in a way that made her presence impactful, which in hindsight, might be one of the pic’s few redeeming qualities.