“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” could have been a totally different movie.
A fanatical core of Redditors somehow unearthed the original script and transcribed the preliminary blueprint for “Episode IX” months before the flick hit theaters, reports Esquire.
The breakdown, which was posted to r/StarWarsLeaks Subreddit on Monday, divulged details from the manuscript by the original director and writer duo, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, who have yet to confirm its veracity. The first major difference? It was reportedly titled “Duel of the Fates,” rather than “The Rise of Skywalker.”
“The iron grip of the FIRST ORDER has spread to the farthest reaches of the galaxy,” the opening text read, according to the Reddit post. “Only a few scattered planets remain unoccupied. Traitorous acts are punishable by death.”
The transcript also included other new plots and omissions. For one, Trevorrow and Connolly’s version scraps the phoned-in reveal of Emperor Palpatine (and his shared heritage with Rey) entirely, instead focusing on Rey, Kylo Ren and the franchise’s other core characters.
“Duel of the Fates” also has Kylo Ren and Rey striving to come to a truce between the warring Jedi and Sith factions — a detail that fans felt was disappointingly left out of “The Rise of Skywalker.” In the original script, Kylo Ren is also revealed to have murdered Rey’s parents, leading to the spirits of Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda all aiding Rey in an epic final battle against the Sith lord.
Other fascinating tidbits in the alleged script include Kylo Ren being haunted by Luke’s ghost (a bizarro twist on Obi-Wan’s phantom mentoring in “A New Hope”) and Rey, “disguised as a Tusken Raider” from planet Tatooine, “is revealed to have created her own weapon (a double-bladed lightsaber hybrid of her staff and Luke’s cracked saber).”
The film ultimately ended up in the hands of director J.J. Abrams with a screenplay by Abrams and Chris Terrio, but Trevorrow and Connolly are credited as writers.
Some fans on social media are already calling the leaked in-depth transcript superior to the final product, while others are wondering about what could have been if the film had adhered to the original vision.
“Even if this is fan fiction, it looks better than TROS [‘Rise of Skywalker’],” wrote one Reddit user. “This is MUCH better than what we got. Shame some idiots decided to rewrite it into the mess it became,” lamented another.
However, others felt the force was weak with the leaked script, making comments like, “this reads like terrible fan fiction” and “honestly this just makes me appreciate [‘Rise of Skywalker’] more.”
This isn’t the first time a “Star Wars” script has leaked to the public. In November, Abrams revealed that “The Rise of Skywalker” was nearly spoiled after the actual script was uploaded on eBay thanks to an actor who left the precious text in their hotel room. John Boyega, who plays Finn in the current trilogy, later confessed to the mistake.
Ref;nypost.com