Less than a month after Episode 9 hyperspaced into cinemas, an early draft of the movie, penned by original director Colin Trevorrow – who was fired from Episode 9 in 2017.
Firstly, how different is Trevorrow’s draft to the final product? For starters, it’s not called The Rise of Skywalker.
Instead, the alternate version is titled Duel of the Fates (a nod to the John Williams’ track used in The Phantom Menace) and the plot is the chalk to Abrams’ cheese.
Focusing on another of Palpatine’s grand plans, Duel of the Fates sees Kylo Ren – haunted by Luke Skywalker – discover an old holographic message from the Emperor instructing Darth Vader to seek out Tor Valum, the Sith who taught Palpatine the ways of the Dark Side.
Kylo takes Anakin’s place and heads to the Sith master for further training.
Meanwhile, The Resistance are hard at work trying to defeat the First Order by using a beacon – housed on the now-ravaged planet of Coruscant – to call on allies for help.
Rey continues her Jedi training, mainly in solitude, and Rose has a bigger role.
What’s clear from the “leaked” draft (verified by The AV Club) is how Trevorrow’s Episode 9 embraces the past, whereas The Rise of Skywalker is suffocated by it – a point that’s best demonstrated by Abrams’ treatment of Emperor Palpatine.
Most recently, new concept art for Episode IX has surfaced online that seems to show Colin Trevorrow's vision for the big Star Wars finale.
His movie, according to the leakers, would have been called Duel of the Fates. And by the looks of the art, Trevorrow had a very different Episode IX in mind.
It involves a Rebel uprising on an Imperial-occupied Coruscant, Rey wielding a double-sided blue lightsaber, and Luke Skywalker grabbing Kylo Ren's lightsaber with his bare hands. Very different indeed.
Rey follows a similar trajectory in Duel of Fates and The Rise of Skywalker: she struggles with the Dark Side, accepts help from dead Jedi, and becomes a neutral-ish Jedi who defeats evil.
The biggest difference between the two scripts – when it comes to Rey’s story – concerns Palpatine. The Emperor barely features in Duel of Fates and, therefore, does not get named as Rey’s grandfather.
However, what becomes clear from comparing the two stories is that Palpatine was not brought back into the fold for Rey’s benefit; the ultimate villain returned so Kylo Ren wasn’t the series’ Big Bad.
Duel of Fates does not redeem Ben Solo. The character, who’s haunted by Luke Skywalker throughout Trevorrow’s script, turns into a maniacal villain.
During the final act, Kylo blinds Rey with his lightsaber as they fight on the mythical Jedi planet of Mortis.
After that, Luke concludes that there’s no saving Kylo, and – with Yoda and Obi-Wan – they “extinguish” him.
The opposite happens in The Rise of Skywalker.
Ben Solo, after being killed and then healed by Rey, destroys/relinquishes all memory of Kylo Ren, throwing away his red lightsaber after a parental talk from Han Solo.
By the movie’s final act, Ben’s turned to the side of good and works with Rey to defeat Palpatine.
Ben then dies – as he does in Duel of Fates – but only after resurrecting Rey (with a smooching).
How come such a stark difference between the two scripts?
While Rey is tempted by the Dark Side through The Force Awakes and The Last Jedi, there was almost no chance of Disney allowing its leading hero to turn completely bad.
Ben was different; a pendulum swinging between good and evil, with the answer not being entirely clear.
We can only speculate about the conversations that happened at LucasFilm, but, judging by The Rise of Skywalker and Duel of Fates, the sticking point was almost certainly Kylo Ren and whether he should be redeemed.
As Rise of Skywalker was actually made, the answer over which way they wanted the story to go seems obvious. The question that Trevorrow couldn’t quite answer, though, was how to turn Kylo.
So, where do you start when turning Kylo? Using the foundations Rian Johnson built in The Last Jedi, the obvious answer seems to be to argue that Kylo’s subdued reasons for Rey could be enough.
Having them fall head over heels leaves you with two happy Jedi – and not much conflict.
Perhaps they battle General Hux together. But then, Hux isn’t exactly “final villain of the entire Skywalker saga” material.
You could introduce a new Sith Master, but there’s no real groundwork for that.
Abrams’ answer was to bring back Emperor Palpatine – a villain worse than Kylo who the young Skywalker could turn against. But, how do you make the formerly dead Sith relevant to the sequel trilogy story? Well, that’s easy: you make him the main protagonist’s granddad.
"Bringing back the Emperor was an idea J.J. brought to the table when he came on board," Trevorrow said, a month before The Rise of Skywalker reached cinemas. "It’s honestly something I never considered. I commend him for it. This was a tough story to unlock, and he found the key."
Frankly, bringing back Palpatine is a genius solution to LucasFilm’s Kylo Ren problem.
They wanted their main villain to turn good – so they needed a worse villain for him to fight.
You may not agree with the decision – and it’s hard to argue that The Rise of Skywalker is completely satisfying – but it certainly makes sense from a writers’ perspective.
“The dead speak!” begins the opening crawl.
How? Check Fortnite. Why? It doesn’t really matter. Palpatine’s back and there will be no further questions. He’s the Big Bad – then, now, and forever. Duel of the Fates changes that entirely.
In the alternate version, Palpatine’s poised as an ethereal threat, the former Emperor corrupting Kylo with words rather than being bafflingly resurrected.
A villain pulling the strings from beyond the grave is far scarier than one coming back from the dead to play puppet-master; a shade of subtlety that is sorely lacking from The Rise of Skywalker.
Kylo ignores Force Ghost Luke’s cries to return to the Light, and Ben Solo finally embraces his own mantra from The Last Jedi: “Let the past die, kill it if you have to.” In contrast, Palpatine becomes all-consuming in The Rise of Skywalker, and various secondary plots and characters melt away as the Emperor becomes the focus.
Even the sequel trilogy’s big mystery – the identity of Rey’s parents – becoming inexplicably tied to the Sith Lord.
Kylo’s tragic descent into becoming Duel of Fates’ Big Bad – without being redeemed along the way – feels far more earned and in keeping with the character.
The new revelation that he was the one who killed Rey’s parents (under Snoke’s orders) is more fitting than the kiss-and-make up conclusion of The Rise of Skywalker. Let’s just gently hand-wave away the genocide of millions across the galaxy, shall we?
The structure also feels vastly improved. Gone is the Sith planet of Exegol, sign-posted as the finale’s destination 10 minutes into Rise of Skywalker.
In its place, a series of classic Star Wars set-pieces, including BB-8 hijacking a Star Destroyer and Chewie riding an X-Wing. A series of daring escapades and suicide missions feels far more exciting than the paint-by-numbers MacGuffin chase we did get.
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