Rise Of Skywalker Reused An Abandoned Force Awakens Idea

Abstract

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker drew inspiration from unused ideas in earlier movies, together with exploring the underwater wreckage of the second Demise Star.
• The sequel trilogy explores the galaxy’s previous and the remnants of the Empire, with the Demise Star’s ruins symbolizing the characters’ must confront the previous.
• Rey’s exploration of the Demise Star displays her private journey and the revelation of her lineage, as she grapples with the aftermath of the Emperor’s actions.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker contained many parts of earlier Star Wars movies, drawing inspiration from unused ideas created for different episodes within the saga, and one reused Star Wars: The Drive Awakens idea actually stands out. Years earlier, throughout the manufacturing of The Drive Awakens, issues have been way more sophisticated. There was no Star Wars Sequel Trilogy story but, and the sandbox was utterly open for screenwriters like JJ Abrams and Michael Arndt to determine a brand new period within the Star Wars Galaxy. This was the supply of some particular concepts that will be reused in Episode IX.

One in all Abrams and Arndt’s concepts for The Drive Awakens was an exploration of the underwater wreckage of the second Demise Star, destroyed 30 years earlier in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. This idea would have seen the younger feminine protagonist, later developed into Rey Skywalker, swimming not solely among the many trenches and turrets of the submerged battle station, however into the Emperor’s throne room itself, as revealed in idea artwork for The Drive Awakens. The thought was even floated to make this scavenger character a local to the planet the place the decaying wreckage resided.

How The Second Demise Star Plot Was Reused From The Drive Awakens

This idea of exploring the second Demise Star’s particles was by no means really within the closing minimize of The Drive Awakens (although echoes of it have been felt in Rey’s exploring of decrepit Star Destroyers on Jakku), but it surely was reused virtually wholly within the second act of The Rise of Skywalker. The galaxy throughout the Sequel Trilogy is haunted by its previous of struggle, and mismanaged by Star Wars’ New Republic, a stagnant and inactive peacetime authorities. This allowed for parts of the Empire to outlive, and the Demise Star’s ruins work nicely into this concept. There is not any manner the characters are capable of keep away from coming to phrases with the galaxy’s previous, similar to the Demise Star’s wreckage looms on the horizon in The Rise of Skywalker. However that is much more private for Rey grappling together with her lineage revealed within the movie.

Did Rise Of Skywalker’s Second Demise Star Plot Work?

Whereas The Rise of Skywalker did not embrace any swimming by way of underwater wreckage, it did characteristic Rey exploring the battle station on her personal, each echoing her previous of scavenging Imperial expertise, and reflecting on the revelation that she was the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. This manner, Rey is bodily and metaphorically coping with the aftermath of the Emperor’s actions. In Return of the Jedi, the second Demise Star is the place the Emperor is defeated, and the subsequent time we see it, his inheritor is exploring it, returning to its wreckage for a bit of darkish facet expertise referred to as a Wayfinder, a tool to guide the Resistance to the Sith homeworld of Exegol. That is additionally a component tailored from that very same early thought from The Drive Awakens.

Associated: There’s One Huge Drawback With Return Of The Jedi’s Ending (And Rise Of Skywalker Made It Worse)

In early drafts of The Drive Awakens, the wreckage was to carry data the characters wanted, primarily a bit of historical past concerning historical Jedi websites within the galaxy. That concept was considerably tailored into the map to Luke Skywalker in that very same movie, however in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it’s satirically flipped to be navigational data concerning an historical Sith website. The wreckage of the Demise Star was a really fascinating setting for Rey’s exploration, the invention of the Wayfinder system, and the lethal closing duel between her and Kylo Ren. It was the identical place their grandfathers fought 31 years prior, and it labored nicely into the ultimate chapter of the Skywalker Saga, all whereas being an thought developed years earlier for The Drive Awakens.