Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Concept Art Shows Rey and Kylo Ren Duel on Tatooine

New concept art from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker shows Rey and Kylo Ren dueling on Tatooine. Most fans quickly noticed how their face-off in the film mirrored Empire Strikes Back, but there could have been another historic destination from the series at the center of their struggle instead. Tatooine gets some shine near the end of the movie as Rey returns the lightsabers to the Skywalker’s old home and looks out on the sunset themselves. Not that there needed to be anymore revisiting of Star Wars’ lineage in the sequel trilogy. The concept of legacy was absolutely central to how the main characters grapple with their place in both the literal and meta-universe. Still, maybe the director could have managed to give the fans something really striking with a change of scenery.

Writer Chris Terrio has had to answer a lot of questions after the film dropped. Rise of Skywalker brought in a pretty penny at the box office but inspired just as many arguments among fans as the previous entry in the series.

“Kylo says ‘Kill the past,’ but remember, it’s the bad guy that’s articulating that,” Terrio reflected. “‘Kill the past’ is not the voice of the film. That is what any number of dictators would say. I feel that although Kylo Ren is always saying “Kill the past,” that is his blind spot. He doesn’t want to face the past. he doesn’t want to face what he’s done. He doesn’t want to betray the legacy that he’s come from in joining the Dark Side,” he said. “I even think Rian would probably take issue with the idea that ‘Kill the past’ is the voice of the director. I think you don’t write characters that way, or write characters in a meta-conversation with another film.”

When it came to The Last Jedi, he also had to reinforce that Rian Johnson’s work did not alter their course for Rise of Skywalker.

“Just as anyone would have an argument as they’re leaving in the car about what should’ve happened, what they liked, what they didn’t like, of course, the creators of the next film have those same arguments about what they thought were the strongest things, what they thought was promise unfulfilled, what they thought was a good dangling plot thread that could be picked up,” Terrio added. “Of course we hear the reaction of fans, but the objective of this movie wasn’t to amalgamate all the fan opinions and then take a vote on what should happen. It was to go in a direction that J.J. thought could come to a really surprising and satisfying ending.”

Would you have liked to see Rey and Kylo mix it up there? Let us know down in the comments!