Daisy Ridley Promises Epic Rey vs. Kylo Ren Duel in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The new Star Wars trilogy has been building toward an epic confrontation between Kylo Ren, the heir to the Skywalker legacy who instead embraced the Dark side, and Rey, the Force-sensitive youngster who’s helping reignite the spark of hope in the galaxy. And after the two connected then broke apart in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, their collision is sure to be epic.

Actress Daisy Ridley spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast where she teased an intense lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, a battle that will likely have lasting repercussions for the entire franchise.

“I just think they’ve done a great job with all the relationships. With the fun friendships, and with the sort of strange thing with Rey and Kylo… also we have a great fight. A great fight,” explained Ridley. “And I was really happy that the Vanity Fair pictures did show a bit of it. It’s a great fight. Like I’ve become such a better fighter and they made the lightsabers lighter, so it actually looks like we’re swinging light and not like heavy [swords].”

As Ridley points out, fans have already seen a glimpse of the battle thanks to the first batch of photos released earlier this year. It has not shown up in the trailer, but Ridley compared the scene to the epic confrontation with Snoke’s guards in Star Wars: The Last Jedi — especially in the complexity of filming the fight.

“[The Throne Room fight] felt pretty cool, and also that was really hard because everything had to match up. There’s like a dolly shot coming through and it ends with me and I think I was fighting James at the time, who’s the stuntman with the two swords,” Ridley said. “It was so tiring. We did like 25 takes because if one thing was off we had to keep going. But I was really proud of that fight.”

She added, “This fight, it was November, we had water being thrown at us—I’m not gonna complain about the cold, I’m just not gonna do it (laughs)—so it was like a real thing of stamina. It felt really epic, and it felt epic even at the time. One can only imagine what it’s gonna look like.”

Fans will get to see the final duel when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres in theaters on December 20th.