Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s Rey and Kylo Ren Duel Almost Looked Like Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is finally in theaters and fans continue to digest the end of the Skywalker Saga. Now, new revelations from The Rise of Skywalker artbook show off what could have been during the epic confrontation between Rey and Kylo Ren. This sequel trilogy has been obsessed with echoes over the course of their runtime. So, it should come as no surprise that the initial intent was to have the two square off against each other in a struggle that looks like Empire Strikes Back. If the throne room scene wasn’t enough of a callback to Star Wars’ past, this would have driven it home even further. The other designs have some very pleasing use of color to them as well. But, the image of the two on that raised platform would have been absolute money on a big screen.

As January continues on, The Rise of Skywalker has now become yet another billion dollar movie for Disney. While the economic success may not have been what projections had foretold, that’s still nothing to sneeze at. Still, people are wondering how the final installment in this particular saga could have been more enjoyable. Chris Terrio, who wrote the finale, talked about why Kylo Ren made some of those decisions to wrap the series. He’s been covering a lot of ground trying to explain a lot of the ins and outs of the story to fans.

“Kylo says ‘Kill the past,’ but remember, it’s the bad guy that’s articulating that,” Terrio reminds fans. “‘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.”

Terrio also shared that fan reaction to The Last Jedi actually did not shape their take on The 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.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters right now.