Star Wars Artist Shares Unsettling Dark Rey Unused Design

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available to watch from the comfort of your home, allowing a whole new audience to check out the buzzworthy (for better or worse) film. The ninth installment in the “Skywalker Saga” introduced some significant things into the canon, including the heavily speculated about “Dark Rey”. The alternate version of Rey (Daisy Ridley) was one of the most aesthetically-surprising elements of the film, and now we have a look at how it kind of came together. A new piece of concept art from Adam Brockbank recently went viral, which showcases one of the “early experiments” with designing Dark Rey.

By far, the most striking part of the concept art is Dark Rey’s “Sith Eyes”, and the way that the shadow on her forehead evokes Darth Maul. While it isn’t terribly different from the version of Dark Rey that we ultimately saw in the film, it still is an interesting look at some of the more detailed aspects of her character.

Ultimately, Dark Rey only played a small role in The Rise of Skywalker itself, briefly appearing as a vision while Rey second-guessed her connection to The Force. For some, that moment – as well as Rey’s storyline overall – was a little disappointing, and was just part of the larger backlash that surrounded The Rise of Skywalker.

“It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky. January was not that nice,” Ridley said during a recent podcast appearance. “It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of, this week, and it’s so filled with love; and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people…You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something but it feels like it’s changed slightly. I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.”

“If I went to a film and didn’t like it, I just wouldn’t tweet about it,” Ridley added. “But it’s such a conversation and it always has been. I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my news feed in January and trying not to see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting.’ It’s been tricky but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it. But it’s a funny thing.”

What do you think of this concept art for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s “Dark Rey”? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!